What Bilski means for IP owners

01 July 2010

The US Supreme Court has issued its decision on business method patents in Bilski v Kappos. Eileen McDermott asked a wide range of practitioners what the ruling means for patent applicants across a range of industries

The US Supreme Court's long-awaited decision in Bilski v Kappos, published last month, revealed considerable disquiet about patent-eligible subject matter, with four out of nine justices signing an opinion saying that methods of doing business should not be patentable. But, by ruling that the Federal Circuit's machine-or-transformation test is not the sole test for determining patent eligibility, has the Court actually made it easier to obtain business method patents?

In its ruling on June 28 – the last day of this year's term – the Court affirmed the Federal Circuit's view that the invention at issue did not constitute patent-eligible subject matter because it was geared to an abstract idea. It was widely expected that the Court would follow the USPTO and Federal Circuit in rejecting the patent application, which was for a method of hedging risk in the commodities markets. But the Court's ruling the Federal Circuit's machine-or-transformation test...

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