Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank International
2014 United States Supreme Court case / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank International, 573 U.S. 208 (2014), was a 2014 United States Supreme Court[1] decision about patent eligibility of business method patents.[2] The issue in the case was whether certain patent claims for a computer-implemented, electronic escrow service covered abstract ideas, which would make the claims ineligible for patent protection. The patents were held to be invalid, because the claims were drawn to an abstract idea, and implementing those claims on a computer was not enough to transform that abstract idea into patentable subject matter.
Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank International | |
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Argued March 31, 2014 Decided June 19, 2014 | |
Full case name | Alice Corporation Pty. Ltd. v. CLS Bank International, et al. |
Docket no. | 13-298 |
Citations | 573 U.S. 208 (more) 134 S.Ct. 2347; 189 L. Ed. 2d 296; 2014 U.S. LEXIS 4303; 82 USLW 4508; 110 U.S.P.Q.2d 1976, 14 Cal. Daily Op. Serv. 6713, 2014 Daily Journal D.A.R. 7838, 24 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. S 870 |
Case history | |
Prior | CLS Bank Int'l v. Alice Corp. Pty. Ltd., 768 F. Supp. 2d 221 (D.D.C. 2011); 685 F.3d 1341 (Fed. Cir. 2012); on rehearing en banc, 717 F.3d 1269 (Fed. Cir. 2013); |
Holding | |
Merely requiring generic computer implementation fails to transform an abstract idea into a patent-eligible invention. Alice patents found to be invalid. | |
Court membership | |
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Case opinions | |
Majority | Thomas, joined by unanimous |
Concurrence | Sotomayor, joined by Ginsburg, Breyer |
Laws applied | |
35 U.S.C. § 101 |
Although the Alice opinion did not mention software as such, the case was widely considered as a decision on software patents or patents on software for business methods.[3][4] Alice and the 2010 Supreme Court decision of Bilski v. Kappos, another case involving software for a business method (which also did not opine on software as such[5]), were the most recent Supreme Court cases on the patent eligibility of software-related inventions since Diamond v. Diehr in 1981.[6]