FEDERAL CIRCUIT APPEALS COURT ON METHOD PATENTS
Posted in Featured Articles, Legal News
In re Bilski, Fed. Cir., holds that a Patent-Eligible Process Must Meet Machine-or-Transformation Test:
In a 2008 ruling, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals released a definitive test on whether a process claim, including a business patent claim, is written so narrowly as to encompass only a particular application of a fundamental principle, such as a mental action or a scientific or mathematical principal, instead of attempting to pre-empt the principle itself. In conclusion, it stated that a claimed process is patent-eligible only if: (1) it is tied to a particular machine or apparatus, or (2) it transforms a particular article into a different state or thing. In re Bilski, Fed. Cir., No. 2007-1130, 10/30/08.
