This ruling should worry every software patent owner

[Commentary] We have gotten our first taste of the practical consequences of the June landmark decision from the Supreme Court restricting patents on software. The Federal Circuit Appeals Court, which hears appeals in all patent cases, invalidated a software patent for being overly abstract.

And the reasoning of the decision could lead to a lot of other software patents going down in flames, too.

The legal scholar Robert Merges has argued that the Supreme Court's June ruling, the first time the Supreme Court has weighed in on software patents since 1981, could endanger a lot of existing software patents. The Federal Circuit ruling underscores that conclusion.