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(Highly Divided) Federal Circuit Opinion Finds Many Software Patents Ineligible

Posted by Soulskill on from the system-and-method-for-bits-and-stuff dept.

ais523 writes "The Federal Circuit has divided CLS Bank vs. Alice Corp., a case about various sorts of patents, including software patents. Although the judges disagreed, to a lesser or greater extent, on the individual parts of the ruling, more than half decided that the patents in question — algorithms for hedging risk — were ineligible patent matter, and that merely adding an 'on a computer'-like clause to an abstract algorithm does not make it patentable. Further coverage is available at Groklaw, or you can read the opinion itself (PDF)."

1 of 116 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Does that mean? by Theaetetus · · Score: 5, Informative

    There is no line. Algorithms were never meant to be patented.

    35 USC 101: Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.

    Algorithm: A process or set of rules to be followed in calculations or other problem-solving operations, esp. by a computer.

    I'd say it's pretty clear that algorithms were meant to be patented, provided they were new and useful and met the other conditions of the patent act.