SMED Declarations Under 35 U.S.C. § 101: The Evidentiary Limits of Uncorroborated Inventor Testimony

Subject Matter Eligibility Declarations (“SMEDs”) are declarations submitted under 37 C.F.R. § 1.132 to place factual evidence into the record when responding to a § 101 subject matter eligibility rejection.  On December 4, 2025, the USPTO Director issued a memorandum highlighting SMEDs as a tool for eligibility disputes, particularly where the analysis may turn on technical facts like the state of the art, how a person of ordinary skill in the art would read the specification, or whether the claims reflect a technological improvement. The memorandum does not change § 101 …