Last fall, the Federal Circuit issued an en banc decision in In re Bilski, holding that the “machine-or-transformation test” was the only test for determining whether a claimed process was eligible for patenting pursuant to § 101. The decision required that a process either: 1) be tied to a particular machine or apparatus; or 2) transform an article into a different state or thing. The Federal Circuit affirmed the PTO’s rejection of Bilski’s claimed method of hedging the risk of bad weather through commodities trading as lacking patentable subject matter. The Federal Circuit held that the method failed the machine-or-transformation test. Click here for the Federal Circuit decision.
Earlier this week, Bilski petitioned the Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari to consider the following two issues:
Whether the Federal Circuit erred by holding that a “process” must be tied to a particular machine or apparatus, or transform a particular article into a different state or thing … despite this Court’s precedent declining to limit the broad statutory grant of patent eligibility for “any” new and useful process beyond excluding patents for “laws of nature, physical phenomena, and abstract ideas.”
Whether the Federal Circuit’s “machine-or-transformation” test for patent eligibility, which effectively forecloses meaningful patent protection to many business methods, contradicts the clear Congressional intent that patents protect “method[s] of doing or conducting business.” 35 U.S.C. § 273.
Click here to read the petition. Pursuant to Supreme Court procedural rules, amici briefs are due at the end of February, although the PTO can seek an extension.