Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, LLP, one of the world’s largest intellectual property law firms, announced today that the U.S. Supreme Court has granted its petition for a writ of certiorari in the case In re Bilski. The petition seeks to overturn a decision issued on October 30, 2008, by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit which set forth a test requiring that a patentable process either be tied to a machine or apparatus or involve a transformation of one thing into something else. Applying this test, the Federal Circuit affirmed the rejection of the Bilski business method patent application by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
The petition asked the Court to overturn the Federal Circuit’s restrictive ruling that limits when processes are eligible for patenting. “By accepting the case, we hope the Court is signaling its desire to reaffirm that patent protection is available to a broad range of inventive processes that drive today’s information economy,” said J. Michael Jakes of Finnegan.
Commentary Available
Mike Jakes and his team are available to comment on this case. To learn more, please contact Chuck Kabat of Schwartz Communications at 781-684-0770 or Finnegan@schwartz-pr.com.
Background information about the case is available on Finnegan’s website at www.finnegan.com.
About Finnegan
With more than 375 intellectual property lawyers, Finnegan is one of the largest IP law firms in the world. From offices in Washington, DC; Atlanta, Georgia; Cambridge, Massachusetts; Palo Alto, California; Reston, Virginia; Brussels, Belgium; Shanghai, China; Taipei, Taiwan; and Tokyo, Japan; the firm practices all aspects of patent, trademark, copyright, and trade secret law, including counseling, prosecution, licensing, and litigation. The firm also represents clients on IP issues related to international trade, portfolio management, the Internet, e-commerce, government contracts, antitrust, and unfair competition. For additional information on the firm, please visit www.finnegan.com.
Contacts:
Schwartz Communications
Chuck Kabat, 781-684-0770
781-608-3812
cell
ckabat@schwartz-pr.com
