At long last, the Supreme Court has issued its opinion in Bilski v. Kappos. As widely expected, the Court affirmed the unpatentability of Bilski’s risk-management method. With a majority opinion authored by Justice Kennedy and concurring opinions offered by Justices Breyer and Stevens, the Court, instead of relying on the Federal Circuit’s “machine-or-transformation” test, relied on prior precedent to conclude that the claimed method was an “abstract idea” and thus not patentable. Interestingly, the opinion does not interpret §101 to exclude business method patents, and although the Court expressly refused to rule on the patentability of software, early consensus is that software will remain largely patentable. 

See, Bilski v. Kappos (Supreme Court 2010)(08-964). Please contact us for more information on the Bilski decision and its impact on business method and software patents