The Wall Street Journal recently reported that the United States Supreme Court has agreed to review the recent decision by the CAFC in In Re Bilski, the now-famous appellate decision which appeared to narrow the scope of allowable subject material for business method patents. The Supreme Court is expected to hear arguments in the case (captioned as Bilski v. Doll, 08-964) in the coming fall.
The Supreme Court has recently been quite active in the patent law field, issuing several decisions that have generally made it more difficult for patent applicants and patent holders to respectively gain and enforce patent rights. The Supreme Court’s decision to review Bilski is important, insofar as a decision to uphold the CAFC opinion could potentially serve to not only further curtail the development and enforcement of patent rights, but could also result in the de facto invalidation of thousands of business method patents. Expect a blizzard of amicus briefs!
The Wall Street Journal article may be found at http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124386742426172359.html?mod=googlenews_wsj.
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