Supreme Court Hands Down Bilski Decision

Although it affirmed the ultimate conclusion of non-patentability, today the U.S. Supreme Court has once again rejected the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit’s attempt to limit the scope of patent law through use of bright-line tests. The appellate court’s machine-or-transformation test was the CAFC’s latest attempt to employ a bright-line test, this time to the determination of patentability. Like many other CAFC bright-line tests which came before it, the U.S. Supreme court rejected the appellate court’s new rule finding it too restrictive. The high court affirmed the CAFC’s conclusion of unpatentability, however, based on the long-standing prohibition of patenting an abstract idea. The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision today breathes renewed life into pending business-method patent applications.”