The Future of Business Method and Software Patents? Keep Your Eyes on the Bilski Case

The pending Supreme Court case of Bilski v. Kappos may do much to clarify the role of "business method" and software patents in the U.S. The In re Bilski case added some new hurdles (offering the machine or transformation test as the test for patentability, not the less demanding test from State Street Bank v. Signature Financial Group), and that decision is now being appealed before the Supreme Court. PatentlyO summarizes the briefs being filed in support of the US Government's position. In discussing the Government's brief, PatentlyO also observes that the Government is taking an originalist position, seeking to apply what the framers of patent law in the 18th and 19th century intended regarding patentable material. Interesting! (And I thought originalist thinking was long dead in D.C.)