Posts Tagged: "history of software patents"

A Software Patent Setback: Alice v. CLS Bank

Truthfully, the Supreme Court decision in Alice can only be described as an intellectually bankrupt. The Supreme Court never once used the word “software” in its decision. The failure to mention software a single time is breathtaking given that the Supreme Court decision in Alice will render many hundreds of thousands of software patents completely useless. Ironically, at the end of the day, software patent claims written in typical, industry standard format will result in patent ineligible claims. Yet, at the same time, business methods are patentable. To call this bizarre and inconsistent doesn’t begin to scratch the surface.

A Software Patent History: The Algorithm Cases

These cases are very important though because they give us the best glimpse yet into understanding the disclosure requirements for software patents that utilize means-plus-function claim language. Understanding this particular aspect of patent drafting may be crucial moving forward given that some believe that means-plus-function claiming may be one way to get at least some patent claim coverage in the wake of Alice. Therefore, given that the extraordinarily strict disclosure requirements mandated by employing means-plus-function claiming, this technique may well be the future for software patents. Certainly adhering to the extreme disclosure requirements in the Algorithm cases will be a best practice moving forward even if you do not employ means-plus-function claiming, and it will likely remain a best practice until some statutory or common law relief from Alice is achieved.

A Software Patent History: SCOTUS Decides Bilski

The Supreme Court held that the machine-or-transformation test is not the sole test for patent eligibility under §101, and that the Federal Circuit erred when it ruled that it was the singular test to determine whether an invention is patentable subject matter… As we leave Bilski we knew, or thought we knew, that 8 out of 9 Justices of the United States Supreme Court had agreed that at least some software is patentable.

1998: Federal Circuit Says Yes to Business Methods

It is really incorrect to say that the Federal Circuit eliminated the business method exception in State Street Bank, although the same net effect admittedly occurred regardless of how you characterize the ruling. It is better to say that the Federal Circuit went out of its way to explain that the business method exception had really never existed in the first place. The court explained that neither it nor its predecessor court, the CCPA, had ever applied the business method exception to a single case. Furthermore, Judge Rich explained that the cases relied upon to support the existence of the business method exception were In re Maucorps and In re Meyer were both rendered prior to the Supreme Court’s decision in Diehr, and prior to the Federal Circuit’s abandonment of the Freeman-Walter-Abele test. Furthermore, the Maucorps and Meyer cases were decided not on the business method exception, but on the mathematical algorithm exception.

Software Patent History III: The Federal Circuit Decides Arrhythmia Research & Alappat

Given that the Supreme Court almost never overrules its own prior decisions, then Justice Rehnquist tried to explain in Diehr that both Gottschalk v. Benson and Parker v. Flook remained good law, despite the fact that the holding in Diehr clearly set patent eligibility for software on a new path different and distinct from the path chosen by the Court in Benson and Flook… In historical terms, the next factual inquiry that presented itself was whether a computer implemented method that transformed data into a readable waveform that could be quickly interpreted was patent eligible. Ultimately, it was wrestling with this scenario that led to the end of the Freeman-Walter-Abele test.