Software Patents Need to Be Abolished
This post originally appeared at HuffingtonPost, and is co-authored by Brad Feld The U.S. Supreme Court just blinked. In the landmark Bilski v. Kappos decision, the Court had a chance to right a patent wrong. It didn't. Instead, in a cautious and internally contradictory decision, it further fuzzified the mess that is the U.S. patent system -- and it will have sad consequences for innovation in this country. It was terrible timing for a loss of legal nerve. For all the attention given this case's decision -- and some patent law blogs had turned its release into something like the final episode of LOST, complete with countdown -- the underlying case was easily decided. It had to do with whether the plaintiff could patent a method for assessing and trading energy risk. This sort of vague nonsense is an easy lob to the high court, with Justices applauding one another for agreeing that trading energy risk shouldn't be patented.
