Law for Business 12th Edition by James Barnes,Terry Dworkin,Eric Richards

Exercise 4

Diehr wished to patent his process for molding raw uncured synthetic rubber into cured precision products. The process used a mold for shaping rubber under heat and pressure and then curing it while still in the mold. Previous efforts at curing and molding synthetic rubber had failed because of the inability to accurately measure and control the temperature inside the molding press. Diehr's process constantly measured the temperature inside the mold, feeding the information to a computer that constantly recalculated the curing time, so that the molding press would open at the correct time. A U.S. patent examiner rejected Diehr's patent application, asserting that processes involving the laws of nature and physical phenomena are not eligible for patent protection. Is Diehr's process eligible for patent protection? Explain.