I. INTRODUCTION In the past several years, the Supreme Court has upended patent doctrine to a degree not seen since the mid-nineteenth century. The Court handed down opinions in six cases, and even Justice Stephen Breyer's lengthy dissent from the dismissa, (1) of a seventh case, Laboratory Corp. of America v. Metabolite Laboraties, (2) has been followed closely by the bench and bar. (3) Not since 1853, when the Court decided eight patent cases, (4) has the Court engaged so intensely with the working details of the American patent system. Yet, throughout this tumult, the descriptive foundation of the patent system has remained unscathed. The status of patents is undisputed: patents are property. (5)
