In new case, Supreme Court revisits the question of software patents

If you write a book or a song, you can get copyright protection for it. If you invent a pill or a better mousetrap, you can patent it. But for decades, software has had the distinction of being eligible for both copyright and patent protection.

The patent system, critics say, is complex and expensive -- and a bad fit for the fast-moving software industry. And they wonder, doesn’t the protection offered by copyright suffice? On March 31, for the first time since 1981, the Supreme Court will hear arguments on whether software -- or more precisely, computer-implemented inventions -- can continue to be patented. The case, Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank, focuses on software built to eliminate “settlement risk” in currency and financial transactions where money is held in escrow and one party could renege on a deal and leave the other holding the bag. Alice Corp. claims that CLS Bank offers a service that infringes on its patent. The first time the high court took up such a case, it ruled that “one may not patent an idea” or something as abstract as an algorithm.