Software patent case to get U.S. Supreme Court hearing

The top court in the U.S. has agreed to hear a case that will decide whether software can be patented, a huge case that would have monumental impact on intellectual property laws.

A landmark case has made it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, with the Washington body saying in a one-line order on Friday it has agreed to hear the case of Alice Corporation Pty, a tiny software maker that's attempting to patent a particular type of software that processes financial transactions in the derivatives market.

Simplified, Alice's patent states that a certain type of transaction needs to be processed in an escrow account — a third party, outside of the two sides in any deal, which holds the funds while the transaction is made.

Alice's business was created in part to set up that escrow account. But another company, CLS Bank International, is challenging the validity of that patent.

Under U.S. law, concepts such as abstract ideas, laws of nature and other natural phenomena cannot be patented. 

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(These latest Intellectual Property (IP) news and events presented here, are prepared and compiled by us, the World Patent & Trademark Law Office (WPTO),for your reference and information)