This is big. This very much could mean the end of software patents… See the article The Death of Google’s Patents (Patent Law Blog). From the Patent Law Blog article:
If the PTO’s test is followed, the crucial question for the vitality of patents on computer implemented inventions is whether a general purpose computer qualifies as a “particular” machine within the meaning of the agency’s test. In two recent decisions announced after the oral arguments in the Bilski case, Ex parte Langemyr (May 28, 2008) and Ex parte Wasynczuk (June 2, 2008),[3] the PTO Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences has now supplied an answer to that question: A general purpose computer is not a particular machine, and thus innovative software processes are unpatentable if they are tied only to a general purpose computer.
This has major implications on everyone who has protected, is protecting or will try to protect Intellectual Property, especially software patents:
That stark answer should capture the attention of the many inventors and firms owning, or seeking to own, patents on innovative computer implemented processes, for the PTO’s new interpretation of patentable subject matter provides a clear avenue to reject patent applications and to invalid issued patents on all such innovations without regard to how meritorious or creative the innovation is. To understand the sweeping implications of this new position, we need only to consider how the PTO’s position applies to the patent on Google’s PageRank technology, which is surely one of the most famous and valuable of all modern software patents and which is now almost surely invalid under the agency’s position.
…time to engage the patent lawyers!
ceo