Friday Shorts: Bilski, Troll Tracker, Patent Reform

Bilski Oral Arguments Aweigh! Yesterday, the CAFC heard oral arguments for In re Bilski, No. 2007-1130 to consider what, and what is not, patentable subject matter. To listen to an MP3 of the oral arguments, click here.

Eyewitness accounts are rolling in - over at the PLI Blog, Gene Quinn has a good play-by-play of the oral arguments (link). Josh Sarnoff over at the AU Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property Blog (link) has an eyewitness account and some additional thoughts. Charley Mecedo kindly emailed me his account of the argument

InformationWeek also has an article here (link), and the Associated Press weighed in here (link).

No one has a sense of how the CAFC will exactly rule on this issue. The consensus, at this point, is that State Street will likely be intact, software will still be patentable, and we can expect another layer of analysis to be added to the onion skin of patentable subject matter (e.g., post-solution activity, etc.).

Patent Troll Tracker Litigation Update: Joe Mullin has the latest on the fireworks surrounding the defamation lawsuit against Frenkel (aka The Patent Troll Tracker). There's a lot in his latest post (link), including commentary from none other than Ray Niro.

Is Patent Reform Getting Ready For a Tapout? From the Economist: "While the arguments rage in the courts, Congress seems content to do nothing at all about patent reform. On May 5th the Senate removed the bipartisan Patent Reform Act from its calendar."