Sporkman
June 29th, 2010, 02:21 PM
Supreme Court relaxes limits on innovations that can be patented
By Peter Whoriskey
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
The Supreme Court on Monday loosened the limits on the kinds of inventions that are eligible for patent protection in a case that was closely watched for its impacts on innovation.
At issue was a bid by two inventors to patent a business method for hedging risk in buying energy. The high court unanimously rejected the inventors' claim, deeming their innovation too abstract to qualify for patent protection. But in doing so, it also rejected a lower court's reasoning that only inventions involving machinery or physical "transformations" are eligible for patents.
Some experts hailed the decision as a move that could bring patent law out of the industrial era, when inventions were more likely to be machines, into the information age, where they are often are less tangible...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/28/AR2010062803523.html
By Peter Whoriskey
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
The Supreme Court on Monday loosened the limits on the kinds of inventions that are eligible for patent protection in a case that was closely watched for its impacts on innovation.
At issue was a bid by two inventors to patent a business method for hedging risk in buying energy. The high court unanimously rejected the inventors' claim, deeming their innovation too abstract to qualify for patent protection. But in doing so, it also rejected a lower court's reasoning that only inventions involving machinery or physical "transformations" are eligible for patents.
Some experts hailed the decision as a move that could bring patent law out of the industrial era, when inventions were more likely to be machines, into the information age, where they are often are less tangible...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/28/AR2010062803523.html