35 U.S.C. § 101 provides that a patent may be obtained for “any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof.” However, this Court has held that § 101 “‘contains an important implicit exception: Laws of nature, natural phenomena, and abstract ideas are not patentable.’” Alice Corp. Pty. Ltd. v. CLS Bank Int’l, 573 U.S. 208, 216 (2014). Respondent SRI owns two patents that are both directed to a “computer-automated method” of collecting and analyzing data in a computer network to detect suspicious activity. The question presented is: Whether patent claims that recite only the abstract idea of collecting and analyzing data are patent-ineligible under 35 U.S.C. § 101 and Alice.
