What the court found, is that simply using a computer to implement an abstract idea does not make it patentable.

There are some very important concepts to understand here.  Major scientific discoveries like the discovery of the structure of DNA by Crick and Watson are not patentable.  

But the use of those discoveries often is patentable.  So, for example, gene replication methods based upon an understanding of what DNA is and how it works, are patentable while principles underlying how those machines work is not.

What the Alice decision said, is that a software patent will not be allowed on something that just computerizes the use of an abstract idea,  such as calculations of the time dilation effect predicted by the theory of relativity.

This then brings up the important question of what software is patentable, since much of it relies on calculations of known scientific principles.

That is a tricky decision to make at best.  The first task in determining what to do is to identify the scientific principle that the software is relying on.  The next is to identify the novel inventive features (NIF's)  of the invention (from which patent claims are written).  

Those NIF's must be unique and distinct from the scientific principles on which they depend.  Again using relativity as an example, Einsteins equations teach us that a great deal of energy is bound up in an atom and if released could have significant effects.   However,  those equations do not have any direct connection with Nuclear Fission or the Chain reactions that were eventually employed to release this energy.  

Therefore software based on E=mc² would not be patentable but software which calculates neutron fluxes, chain reactions and other such quantities would. The important distinction is that  those parameters stemmed from the activities of man in creating those reactions not the discovery of a law of nature.

If you are encountering Alice rejections and are unsure what to do we may be able to help.  Just checkout the Second Opinion  page on our website. Or contact us as shown below.

 

Often our clients don't understand why a potential target company is unwilling to adopt their invention  which may be clearly better than what they are currently using .  Prospects tend to be most responsive to inventions that are a good fit to what their business is currently producing .  When I thought about why this is so, I was reminded of a conversation I had a long time ago.

For more information write to rblazey@ittrifecta.com or call (585) 520-3539

Opportunity Associates is about organizing and managing the opportunities that occur every day in  the general course of business.  For the most part these opportunities are overlooked while the business concentrates on "fitting fires" in its traditional business, yet these opportunities are the potential source of both business growth and even its survival as its traditional business is impacted by changes in the rest of the world such as technology, competition and the general economy.  

So the problem is how to identify those opportunities worth pursuing and match them with the resources available.  Those resources, of necessity coming from the current business.

This is always a difficult choice because one needs to pit indefinite returns in the future against "certain" returns from present day activities which are already very well understood.

OA has an approach to helping compare and quantify existing opportunities so that funds can be found for them.  if this is done at all today its done in a haphazard way or depends on the activities of powerful "champions"  who can sponsor an idea and defend it from all those forces that would like to kill it and appropriate its resources.

Using the OA approach, the organization agrees on a portfolio of opportunities that both make sense and are affordable.   This video will give you an idea of how OA works, but its perhaps too detailed to understand all at once.  To learn how OA can be applied to your business, please contact us.

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