The courts have been particularly active recently with respect to the question of what is patentable subject matter.  Despite this activity, there has been no

We have all heard of the patent battles between tech giants Apple and Samsung.  It is easy to imagine the countless patents that protect the new iPhone and Galaxy smart phones.  However, intellectual property is not limited to the Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerbergs of the world.  A huge amount of intellectual property is being developed, and protected, in the oil field.  In fact, the next major patent dispute is more likely to involve a method of fracking than a processor on a smart phone.  The reason, in part, is that as “easy oil” reserves become more and more rare, oil and gas companies are developing incredible technological solutions in order to harness oil, which was previously believed unreachable.  In solving these complex problems, they are developing vast amounts of intellectual property.  Oil and gas companies of all sizes need to begin protecting their intellectual property because their competitors are.  Failing to protect intellectual property will place these companies at a huge competitive disadvantage in the long run.

by Gregory Perrone

This past Spring, in CLS Bank International, CLS Services Ltd. v. Alice Corp, Pty Ltd. 2011-1301 (Fed. Cir. May 10, 2013), a splintered en banc panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit vacated its three-member panel’s reversal of the district court’s judgment and affirmed a grant of summary judgment of invalidity.

The en banc panel held that a patent claiming a computerized system and methods for eliminating settlement risk are not eligible for patent protection under 35 U.S.C. Section 101. While the panel’s six opinions and 127 pages provide a menagerie of commentary on why subject matter may or may not be patent eligible, little guidance is offered to inventors, patent counsel or the courts on how to determine whether subject matter is patentable.