Most of the other patent blogs have been covering the Supreme Court oral arguments in the Bilski v. Kappos case.  [e.g., Patently-O]

My favorite quote from the case comes from Justice Scalia (page 16 of the pdf):

You know, you mention that there are all these — these new areas that didn’t exist in the past because of modern business and what-not, but there are also areas that existed in the past that don’t exist today. Let’s take training horses. Don’t you think that — that some people, horse whisperers or others, had some, you know, some insights into the best way to train horses? And that should have been patentable on your theory.

It’s a great comment/question (…that “business methods” aren’t necessarily a “new” phenomenon).

See also this post on the IPBiz blog and my comment there.

See also this post on the Oxford University Press blog by Charles R. Macedo on Yes Justice Scalia, There Were Patents Relating To Training Horses in the 1890s; But More Importantly, We Need Them Today.

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