Why a New Supreme Court Ruling Could Make Getting a Patent a Whole Lot Harder

On June 19, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that abstract business processes are ineligible for patents, unless the invention makes some significant change to the process at hand, in Alice Corp. Pty Ltd. v. CLS BankInternational.  Legal experts say this ruling may have a major impact on tech firms who rely on the changing processes in development of software applications. Finnegan partner Linda J. Thayer commented on this ruling stating, "Everything is pointing towards making it very hard to patent a business method.”