Noose Is Tightening Around Abstract Business Method Patents

In Alice Corp. V. CLS Bank, the Supreme Court ruled that an abstract idea – in this case, use of a neutral intermediary party as an escrow agent – cannot be patented, and the fact that the patent claims to administer the escrow relationship using a computer made no patentable difference, notes Harness Dickey attorney Gregory A. Stobbs in Today’s General Counsel. Few expected the Alice patents to survive, he writes, but more interesting is why the Court has recently been tinkering with this seemingly arcane rule of patentable subject matter eligibility, and what it means for the fate of patents.