US Supreme Court Invalidates Patent For Being Software Patent

ciaran_o_riordan (662132) writes The US Supreme Court has just invalidated a patent for being a software patent! To no fanfare, the Court has spent the past months reviewing a case, Alice v. CLS Bank, which posed the question of "Whether claims to computer-implemented inventions ... are directed to patent-eligible subject matter." Their ruling was just published, and what we can say already is that the court was unanimous in finding this particular software patent invalid, saying: "the method claims, which merely require generic computer implementation, fail to transform that abstract idea into a patent-eligible invention," and go on to conclude that because "petitioner's system and media claims add nothing of substance to the underlying abstract idea, we hold that they too are patent ineligible." The End Software Patents wiki has a page for commenting the key extracts and listing third-party analyses. Analysis will appear there as the day(s) goes on. Careful reading is needed to get an idea of what is clearly invalidated (file formats?), and what areas are left for future rulings. If you can help, well, it's a wiki. Software Freedom Law Center's website will also be worth checking in the near future.

Re:Oh please please please

[gumbright]

And did I get first post? How the hell did that happen if i did?

Re:Oh please please please

[johnnys]

I think everyone else was paralyzed with the shock of seeing such "blinding common sense" come from a government institution. You were the first person to recover from the shock, so you get first post.

Holy hell

[GameboyRMH]

There's no way this happened on purpose, something must be wrong.

Re:Oh please please please

[CanHasDIY]

The SCOTUS also ruled that citizens have a right to challenge an IRS summons.

If that headline makes its way to Slashdot, this sudden outburst of common sense may cause the majority of the community to become catatonic.

Re:Oh please please please

[ColdWetDog]

Nope. That was on the Internet. That is completely different.

Re:Oh please please please

[Rob Riggs]

Nope. That was on the Internet. That is completely different.

How about "on a smartphone"? Surely I'm the first person to ever think of that.

Or "on a plane", "in a car", "just like that, but yellow", "at the beach", "indoors", "during a snowstorm", or "while watching Pigs in Space"?

Re:Oh please please please

[mrchaotica]

I do not like green eggs and ham!

fun to be had

[Charliemopps]

For anyone that wants to troll a patent autorny that has his feelings hurt over this, go here: http://www.ipwatchdog.com/2014... [ipwatchdog.com]

In what can only be described as an intellectually bankrupt opinion, the Supreme Court never once used the word “software” in its decision.

Hahahahahahaha... had tears in my eyes reading that.