On Monday, justices of the US Supreme Court has said that they will be considering about refining the existing laws on patent protection as a debate over computer software rages on. The announcement, Reuters said, was welcomed by tech companies who had been battling with lawsuits filed by patent trolls, or firms who have acquired patents for the sake of collecting settlement fees from other firms who are looking to develop new products. On the other hand, the news agency said the Supreme Court might not be aiming for a broader decision that would actually tighten patent eligibility for companies who have many patents and are also developing new products in the process, like IBM Corp.
The consideration to make amendments to the existing patent laws has been spurred by a lawsuit of which Australian company Alice Corp Pty Ltd asserted that their patents for a computer system which facilitates financial transactions were patent eligible. CLS Bank International has challenged Alice's claims in 2007, citing that they use the technology similar to what the former had claimed they own the patents to.
Several judges, which include Anthony Kennedy and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, commented that the patents in dispute are too broad to rule a patent eligible. According to earlier Supreme Court rulings, abstract ideas do not qualify as an eligible patent unless the investor shows how to apply such idea.
On the other hand, the trial is closely watched by various tech companies who are seeking a legal solution to stop patent trolls based from the outcome of the case, Reuters said. Google Inc, Dell Inc and Microsoft, are among the many who had filed briefs to support CLS. Moreover, Justice Stephen Breyer was quoted as saying that patent eligibility could create monopolies in the market, which reduce competition in the process.
Reuters said a ruling on the Alice case is expected by the end of June this year.
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