UPDATE: US High Court Rules Against Expanding Business Method Patents – WSJ.com
Http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100628-709496.html
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Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the majority, declined to adopt “categorical rules that might have wide-ranging and unforeseen impacts,” and chose instead to decide the case narrowly.
“With ever more people trying to innovate and thus seeking patent protections for their inventions, the patent law faces a great challenge in striking the balance between protecting inventors and not granting monopolies over procedures that others would discover by independent, creative application of general principles,” Kennedy wrote. “Nothing in this opinion should be read to take a position on where that balance ought to be struck.”
Four justices, led by Justice John Paul Stevens, would have held that methods of doing business are not patentable.
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For those that haven’t followed this, there is a ridiculous trend that has happened since this ‘business method’ patent model took off. The idea starte when you take something obvious (like selling something) and add ‘using a computer network’ to the method, and then patenting that ‘process’. Amazon’s “one-click checkout” being one of the more notable cases (with hundreds that are similar).
What makes these shenanigans so obvious is how patent attorneys ALL try to get ALL these cases tried in East Texas with the most technologically-ignorant juries possible. They then get restrictive rulings and start suing everyone. The worst thing about the pracice is that is has nothing to do with innovation or invention and everything to do with getting an ignorant jury to side with a slick lawyer.
So we were *that* close to ending an anti-competitive practice that threatens every small business owner (are you paying the license fee to use the ‘business method’ of taking orders using a computer network while digitally storing customer information, say in a cookie. If not, you are a thief, as someone (well, something) owns that idea).
Robot Pirate Ninja 