According to 35 U.S.C. § 101, “any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof” may be patentable. Courts and litigants often struggle in determining what falls outside this scope—i.e., what is unpatentable subject matter. The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals dealt with this issue in a series of appeals between USAA v. PNC Bank (CAFC Nos. 2023-1639, 2023-1778, 2023-1866, 2025-1276, 2025-1277, and 2025-1341), held that the claims in the patents at issue recite unpatentable subject matter, and reversed the entries of judgment for the US$218M and US$4.3M jury verdicts that issued out of the Eastern District of Texas.

On May 19 and 20, senior leadership and other representatives from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) presented at Practising Law Institute’s The SEC Speaks conference. SEC leadership delivered comprehensive remarks articulating a clear shift in the SEC’s regulatory philosophy and priorities and outlining the agency’s evolving approach to regulation and enforcement. We previously covered updates related to the Division of Enforcement here. 

On May 22, 2025, the Supreme Court issued its opinion in Kousisis v. United States, holding that the government need not prove an intent to cause economic loss, let alone actual economic loss, in order to sustain a conviction for wire fraud under 18 U.S.C. § 1343.