Client Brief: Living Up to the Hype? – The Supreme Court Rules on Patenting Business Methods and Other Processes: Bilski and Its Impact
7/1/2010
By Gene Feher
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- Court’s decision was less than what some feared and others had hoped
- Confirms that business methods can be patentable, and that process claims on abstract ideas are not patentable
- Rules that the “machine-or-transformation” test is not the sole test for determining whether a particular process is patent-eligible subject matter, but is “a useful and important clue, an investigative tool” in that determination
- Refuses to further define a “process” under the Patent Laws, but allows the Federal Circuit to develop other criteria that further the purposes of the patent statute and are not inconsistent with its text
