Source: https://ipspotlight.com/2012/07/25/federal-circuit-expands-patent-eligibility-for-business-methods-at-least-for-now/
Timestamp: 2019-04-20 08:18:45+00:00

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A recent Federal Circuit decision could significantly expand patent-eligibility for business methods and software under 35 U.S.C. §101. However, a vigorous dissent written by a judge who participated in a potentially conflicting decision in 2011 suggests that the Court has not yet settled the question of when a process will be considered patentable rather than a patent-ineligible abstract idea.
(d) at the end-of-day, the supervisory institution instructing one of the exchange institutions to exchange credits or debits to the credit record and debit record of the respective parties in accordance with the adjustments of the said permitted transactions, the credits and debits being irrevocable, time invariant obligations placed on the exchange institutions.
The lower court found this claim, along with corresponding system and computer-readable medium claims, to be merely directed to “abstract ideas” (or computer implementations of abstract ideas) and thus invalid under 35 U.S.C. §101 .
when – after taking all of the claim recitations into consideration – it is not manifestly evident that a claim is directed to a patent ineligible abstract idea, that claim must not be deemed for that reason to be inadequate under § 101.
This language in the CLS Bank decision could become a significant barrier for those seeking to find software and business method patents invalid under 35 U.S.C. §101 . Unless it is “manifestly evident” that a claim is directed to an abstract idea, CLS Bank says that the claim is patent-eligible. However, a vigorous dissent authored by a judge who participated in last year’s potentially conflicting Cybersource v. Retail Decisions opinion suggests that the patent-eligibility question is not yet settled.
Earlier this year, the Supreme Court ordered the Federal Circuit to reconsider its decision in Ultramercial v. Hulu, in which the Court found certain software claims to be patent-eligible. The majority’s opinion in CLS Bank hints that the Court will maintain its prior decision in that case. But the spirited dissent, along with the fractured Federal Circuit precedent, suggests that such an outcome is not yet certain.

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