Diamond v. Diehr

Justice Stevens,

with whom Justice Brennan, Justice Marshall, and Justice Blackmun join, dissenting.

The starting point in the proper adjudication of patent litigation is an understanding of what the inventor claims *194to have discovered. The Court’s decision in this case rests on a misreading of the Diehr and Lutton patent application. Moreover, the Court has compounded its error by ignoring the critical distinction between the character of the subject matter that the inventor claims to be novel — the § 101 issue — and the question whether that subject matter is in fact novel — the § 102 issue.

I

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