The Supreme Court heard arguments Monday in a patent law case examining whether a business method can be patented. CongressDaily's David Hatch reported that a decision in the case could have sweeping ramifications for a wide array of industries, including the high-technology sector. During oral arguments in Bilski v. Kappos, some justices expressed concern about the impact of awarding patents for innovations that are not related to manufacturing or technology. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg suggested that under the petitioners' argument, something as abstract as a strategy for resisting a corporate takeover could be patentable.

The litigation centers on efforts by inventors Bernie Bilski and Rand Warsaw, beginning in 1997, to patent a method for businesses to better manage their energy bills by factoring in weather-related price fluctuations. When the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office rejected their request, they took the case to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which upheld the USPTO. Experts said the case could provide the most substantial update on which inventions deserve patent protection since a 1981 high court decision that defined what constitutes a patentable process. Read more in CongressDaily here. (Subscription required)