Patenting Thoughts

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court is being asked to review a decision in a patent case which put a question mark over the ability to patent such things as software and financial strategies.

Law firm Finnegan LLP said on Wednesday it was asking the top court to reconsider the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit's decision to side with patent examiners in rejecting a method for hedging against energy cost changes.

The so-called Bilski case turned on whether an inventor can patent an abstract process, something that involves nothing more than thoughts, and was closely watched by software makers, Internet companies, investment houses and other businesses.

The appeals court ruled on October 30 that Bernard Bilski's hedging method could not be patented because it was not tied to a machine and did not result in a transformation.

The appeals court, in its opinion, also acknowledged that it expected the Supreme Court to consider the case.

Finnegan LLP partner Michael Jakes said he expected the Supreme Court to agree to review the case. "They seem to be interested in this particular issue," he said. "I think they're looking for a case on what processes can be patented."

Business methods were widely considered unpatentable until a 1998 ruling by the same appeals court. One of the best known examples of a business method patent is Amazon's (AMZN.O) one-click process to buy goods on the Internet.

Bilski and Rand Warsaw founded the company WeatherWise to sell services based on their hedging method that is used by some utilities. The U.S. patent office rejected their patent application in 2000 and the patent board upheld the rejection in 2006.