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Inventive methods and processes have long received hostile treatment by the patent system. Courts have been skeptical of these claims because of the potential for overbreadth of the patent, particularly if the method is delineated in functional terms. This categorical skepticism, however, fails to consider the technological specificity of such concerns. For example, the pharmaceutical industry views method claims, particularly methods of use and treatment, as weaker, second-tier forms of protection. Patents on the chemical compound itself offers greater downstream protection over all uses of the compound.

Nevertheless, process claims have received differential treatment in patent law. Congress has adopted process-specific provisions. Notwithstanding that Congress has often legislated specific provisionsfor process claims, the Federal Circuit has gone further, affording patented processes exceptional-and usually …