Patent Law

Giving It A Rest

By Gary Odom and Jordan Kuhn

The Supreme Court has rejected a number of patent appeals recently, not altogether unexpectedly, so it appears the SCOTUS won't blow snot on us for the first time in several years. Recent pleas have been procedural rather than substantive issues. Not much of a rug to pee on. And peeing on the patent rug has been little SCOTTY's specialty in recent times, from obviousness (KSR), declaratory judgment (MedImmune), to injunctive relief (eBay), dramatically stacking the deck against patent holders.

The Supreme Court passed on Nuijten, presumably awaiting Bilski, both 101 (patent eligibility) cases. Nuijten went to the patentability of signals (not), while Bilski harped on patenting business methods, the core issue of both involving transformation of subject matter. While Obzilla (KSR), who can see for miles in hindsight, tore up the town, Bilski may put the big kibosh on method claims, including software patents, stomping them into a swamp of unpatentability. The Supreme Court tends to pick patent cases where one or more judges feels the CAFC erred.

Full post as published by The Patent Prospector on October 08, 2008 (boomark / email).