This note provides an update on Section 101 patent-eligibility legislation pending in Congress. On July 14, 2026, the Senate Judiciary Committee held its first full-committee hearing on S. 1546, the Patent Eligibility Restoration Act of 2025 (“PERA”). Co-Sponsored by Senators Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Chris Coons (D-DE), PERA would eliminate all judicially created exceptions to patent eligibility under 35 U.S.C. § 101 and replace them with defined statutory exclusions, leaving Sections 102, 103, and 112 (novelty, nonobviousness, and disclosure) unchanged. The bill addresses only the threshold eligibility question.

On June 21, 2024, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (“CAFC”) affirmed a decision by the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey dismissing Beteiro, LLC’s (“Beteiro”) claims of patent infringement under Rule 12(b)(6) on the grounds that the asserted claims of the patents-in-suit claim nonpatentable subject matter under 35 U.S.C. § 101.  The CAFC held that Beteiro’s patents—related to remote gaming and gambling activities—amounted to the practice of an abstract idea using conventional computer equipment and did not qualify for patent protection under the two-step framework of Alice/Mayo.