On May 6, 2016, Michelle K. Lee, the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), announced a second update (May 2016 Update) to the Interim Guidance on Patent Subject Matter Eligibility issued in December 2014 (2014 Interim Guidance). The first update was published in July 2015. The May 2016 update provides additional direction to the Patent Examining Corps in order to improve the consistency and quality of rejections under 35 U.S.C. § 101 in light of Supreme Court cases on eligible subject matter, including Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank International.
