“Know It When I See It” Opinion From The Federal Circuit

A practitioner takes a close look at CLS Bank v. Alice Corporation, a recent decision in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and finds the murky waters of computer-process patent law have been stirred but hardly clarified. Nonetheless, this decision and in particular the concurring opinion of Judge Alan D. Lourie may provide some guidance for patent attorneys who are trying to figure out how the P.T.O may decide to perform a 35 U.S.C. § 101 analysis of computer-implemented claims.