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Economics

The Business Method Patent Eligibility Under Alice Test

Quick fact

In Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank (2014), the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that implementing an abstract idea (like intermediated settlement) on a generic computer does not make it patent-eligible, leading to the invalidation of thousands of software and business method patents.

Why this is interesting

Imagine you invented a better way to sell products online, and you get a patent, only to have it invalidated in court because it's an 'abstract idea'—even though it's profitable. How can the law decide what's eligible for a patent?