Intellectual Property » Sharp Words At The Supreme Court, in CLS Bank v. Alice Case

Sharp Words At The Supreme Court, in CLS Bank v. Alice Case

April 10, 2014

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IP lawyer Ben M. Davidson of the Davidson Law Group provides some background on the issue that won’t go away – the extent to which software can be patented – and then gives a brief recap of last week’s oral arguments about its current iteration: CLS Bank International v. Alice Corp. One theme that surfaced was the apparent disagreement between the Federal Circuit and some recent Supreme Court rulings, with the suggestion that the Federal Circuit may have ignored precedent and ruled in favor of some questionable patents. Mark Perry, an attorney for CLS Bank, had some choice words about the Federal Circuit that reflected this sentiment, but Davidson says the justices themselves, notably Justice Ginsburg, seemed more sympathetic. It’s never totally clear where the justices are coming from during this kind of give-and-take, but in the sharpest exchange, Justice Breyer challenged Carter Phillips, a lawyer for Alice Corp, which holds the software patent at issue, to explain how the patent’s escrow system was different from the one his mother used when she tightened the reigns on his checkbook.

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