Newly sworn-in U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor already has plenty of reading ahead of her: Dennis Crouch at the Patently-O blog on Monday posted 43 amicus briefs already filed in the advance of next term’s oral arguments in Bilski v. Doll — the case that will determine the standard for “business method” patents. And Crouch has provided a capsule summary of each of them.
In June, the Supreme Court agreed to hear Bernard Bilski’s appeal of the Federal Circuit ruling that established a controversial “machine or transformation” test for business method patents. (Bilski’s application for a patent on a method to hedge risk in commodities trading was rejected by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, which is represented at the Supreme Court by the U.S. Solicitor General.) Bilski, of course, wants the Court to adopt a more expansive test for business method patents. All of the amicus briefs at Patently-O support Bilski (or support neither side); the government’s reply brief is due September 27 and briefs in support of its position are due seven days later.
