Apple sued for patent infringement, the patent system could be overhauled, and In Re Bilski eliminates some more patents

"End Software Patents (ESP) has filed an amicus curiae brief in the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit's (CAFC) rehearing of the In re Bilski case. The rehearing could lead to the elimination of patents on software.

Early reports suggest that judges are hostile towards abstract patents like Bilski's

Summary/roundup of posts about Bilski, in relation to software patents in particular

This interview is part of a series following the Supreme Court's Bilski decision, which left the laws on what you can get a patent on largely as they are, after a four-justice minority failed to ban "business method" patents.

When the Supreme Court heard the Bilski case earlier this year, it ruled that the specific business method patent at issue in the case was invalid and contended that the patentability of intangible methods should be reduced but not eliminated. The court declined to provide clarity on the scope of software patentability, however, which leaves a lot of important questions unanswered.

Rambus antitrust comes to the Supreme Court; Bilski strikes again; isolated hardware patents news; trolls attack

Google's policy on patents remains troublesome; Bilski and EPO roundup

The U.S. is known for its patent friendliness. But a Supreme Court decision in 2008 overturned a patent application by Bernard L. Bilski and Rand A. Warsaw for a risk mitigation process. Now Red Hat is using the so-called Bilski case in support of software non-patentability.