Supreme Court Balks at Redrawing Patent Rules

The Supreme Court on Monday struck down a patent for a method to hedge weather-related financial risk, but declined to make it more difficult to patent “business methods” or software. The unanimous court found the patent too “abstract,” but emphasized that its ruling was intended neither to narrow nor widen patent law. “It’s a pretty disappointing decision,” says Ciaran O’Riordan, executive director of the End Software Patents campaign. “The judgment rearranges the deck chairs a little bit, but does not make substantial changes to patent law. It’s a wasted opportunity. The positive side is they didn’t make things worse.”

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