US Supreme court hedges its bets and fails to deliver clarity in business methods case

The US Supreme Court gave judgment on Monday 28 June 2010 in the long awaited Re Bilski case concerning the patentability of business methods.

It affirmed the lower Federal Courts' decisions in that the patent in issue was for an abstract idea and not a patentable process. However, it firmly stressed that the "machine or transformation" test used by the lower court was not approved of as the sole test, although it could be a useful and important clue or investigative tool.

Wragge & Co's IP experts have produced an in-depth analysis of this decision and its implications.