Thankfully, the Federal Circuit is bringing normalcy back to recent statutory subject matter debates for software and business methods in view of Bilski. As we predicted, the case of RCT v. Microsoft is the first case in which the Federal Circuit has spoken substantively about the Supreme Court’s Bilski decision, and the bar of [...]

The U.S. Patent Office has today released new Interim Guidance for Determining Subject Matter Eligibility for Process Claims in View of Bilski v. Kappos.
This Interim Bilski Guidance is said to be used “as a supplement” to the previously published Memorandum to Patent Examining Corp Regarding the Supreme Court Decision in Bilski v. Kappos issued on [...]

While there are at least eight (8) cases before the Federal Circuit that could be the court’s first word on patentable subject matter after the Supreme Court’s Bilski v. Kappos opinion, my prediction is that the first decision to provide additional guidance for computer software will be Research Corp. Tech (RCT) v. Microsoft. Furthermore, [...]

The U.S. Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences (BPAI) has released its first opinion citing the U.S. Supreme Court case of Bilski v. Kappos. With a Notification Date of today, July 12, 2010, the case is Ex Parte Proudler, Appeal 2009-006599, Serial No. 10/643,306, Tech. Center 2400, Decided July 7, 2010. The BPAI [...]

On June 28, 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court published its long awaited decision in Bilski v. Kappos. In a split decision, the Court rejected the machine-or-transformation test as the exclusive test for patent eligibility and refused to categorically exclude business method patents. However, the claims as then presented in the Bilski application were [...]

Sitting in the U.S. Supreme Court next to my clients, Bernie Bilski and Rand Warsaw, I wondered what they were thinking as the Justices inquired about horse whispering, speed dating, and tax evasion methods. While we on the Bilski v. Kappos litigation team may have anticipated many of the questions from the Justices, what [...]

In the U.S. Supreme Court case of Bilski v. Kappos, the Brief for the Respondent has been filed by the U.S. Departments of Commerce and Justice and the Patent and Trademark Office. The arguments are organized into the following sections:
I. Section 101 protects industrial and technological processes, and it excludes methods directed to organizing [...]

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently completed a series of hearings that are discussed in my current article in IAM Magazine, entitled “Evolution of the IP Market.”  There were quite a few interesting statements from such people as:

Peter Detkin of Intellectual Ventures,
Paul Ryan of Acacia,
Ken Massaroni of Seagate,
Jim Malackowski of Ocean Tomo,
Professor Mark Lemley of [...]

Today, AwakenIP is filing an Amicus Curiae Brief in the U.S. Supreme Court in the Bilski v. Doll case. Drawing a parallel to the difficulties experienced in copyright law with establishing boundaries between idea and expression for computer software, the Brief urges the Court to maintain a bright line rule regarding patent eligible subject [...]

Today, while attending the IP Business Congress in Chicago, I had the pleasure of meeting with Marshall Phelps and David Kline, authors of Burning the Ships. While I don’t read very many books, this one was strongly recommended to me. It is also only 186 pages long, so I figured I might be [...]