The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit—effectively the second-highest court in the U.S.—has issued a ruling rejecting a patent application that sought to patent a business method independent of any device or transformation of matter. For years, the Federal Circuit has been broadening patent rights, extending patent protection to software applications and business methods during the 1990s. The new ruling should signal an end to many types of business method patents…and, in turn, change the world of software patents, which are closely related to business process patents from a legal standpoint.
