Petition for Certiorari Filed by Finnegan in Bilski v. Doll has been Distributed for a Vote at the Court's May 28th Conference

On January 28, 2009, Finnegan filed a petition for a writ of certiorari on behalf of the applicants in In re Bilski, 545 F.3d 943 (Fed. Cir. 2008) (en banc).  The petition asks the U.S. Supreme Court to review and reverse the Bilski decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit limiting what types of inventions are patentable “processes” under the U.S. patent laws.  

The petition argues that the Federal Circuit decision changes the law by requiring a process to be tied to a machine or transform articles in order to be eligible for patenting.  This “machine-or-transformation test” is inconsistent with the patent statute, which provides that “any new and useful process” is patentable.  The Federal Circuit’s test is also contrary to prior decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court in which the high Court refused to adopt the machine-or-transformation test.  Indeed, the Federal Circuit in Bilski recognized that the Supreme Court may decide to alter or even set aside the “machine-or-transformation” test to accommodate emerging technologies.

On May 12, the petition was distributed for a vote at the Court's May 28th conference.

Supreme Court Amicus Briefs Filed for In re Bilski:

Accenture/Pitney Bowes
Philips Electronics
American Intellectual Property Law Association
Anne E. Barschall
Borland Software Corporation
Boston Patent Law Association
Franklin Pierce Law Center
Medistem, Inc.
John P. Sutton

For more details about the petition, please click one of the following links:

Copy of Petition

Press Release

FAQs

Podcast

Webcast

Amicus Briefs Filed at the Federal Circuit for In re Bilski

In Re Bilski: 19th Century Thinking for 21st Century Challenges

Government's Brief in Opposition to Certiorari

Petitioners Reply Brief