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Contents : No. 08-964 IN THE Supreme Court of the United States -------- BERNARD L. BILSKI AND RAND A. WARSAW Petitioners v. DAVID J. KAPPOS UNDER SECRETARY OF COMMERCE FOR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND DIRECTOR PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE Respondent. -------- On Writ of Certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit -------- BRIEF AMICUS CURIAE OF RED HAT INC. IN SUPPORT OF AFFIRMANCE -------- ROBERT H. TILLER Counsel of Record RED HAT INC. 1801 Varsity Drive Raleigh NC 27606 (919) 754-4232 Counsel for Amicus Curiae WILSON-EPES PRINTING CO. INC. (202) 789-0096 W ASHINGTON D. C. 20002 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page TABLE OF AUTHORITIES ................................ STATEMENT OF INTEREST OF AMICUS CURIAE RED HAT INC. ................................ SUMMARY OF ARGUMENT ............................. ARGUMENT ........................................................ I. THE COURT BELOW CORRECTLY APPLIED THIS COURT'S PRIOR DECISIONS ESTABLISHING THAT ABSTRACT IDEAS ARE NOT PATENTABLE AND ITS MACHINE-ORTRANSFORMATION TEST IS CONSISTENT WITH THOSE DECISIONS.... II. THE FEDERAL CIRCUIT CORRECTLY ABANDONED A MISINTERPRETATION OF STATUTORY SCOPE THAT HAS CAUSED DRAMATIC HARM TO THE INNOVATION PROCESS IN SOFTWARE .............................. A. Software Innovation Long Predated Software Patents ................................. B. The Proliferation of Software Patents Has Resulted in New Risks that Discourage Innovation ........................ III. AN ABSTRACT IDEA DOES NOT BECOME PATENTABLE MERELY BY IMPLEMENTING IT IN COMPUTER SOFTWARE .............................................. CONCLUSION .................................................... (i) ii 1 4 6 6 9 9 12 19 22 ii TABLE OF AUTHORITIES CASES Page In re Allapat 33 F.3d 1526 (Fed. Cir. 1994) .......................................................... 7 8 In re Bilski 545 F.3d 943 (Fed. Cir. 2008) .. 8 Dealertrack Inc. v. Huber No. 06-2335 2009 WL 2020761 (C.D. Cal. Jul. 7 2009) .......................................................... 20 Diamond v. Diehr 450 U.S. 175 (1981) ...... passim Gottschalk v. Benson 409 U.S. 63 (1972) ... passim Oreilly v. Morse 56 U.S. 62 (1853) .............. 6 Parker v. Flook 437 U.S. 584 (1978) .... 7 8 20-21 State Street Bank & Trust Co. v. Signature Fin. Group Inc. 149 F.3d 1368 (Fed. Cir. 1998) cert. denied 525 U.S. 1093 (1999) . 7 8 WMS Gaming Inc. v. Int'l Game Tech. 184 F.3d 1339 (Fed. Cir. 1999) ........................ 20 BPAI CASES Ex parte Cornea-Hasegan No. 2008-4742 (BPAI Jan. 13 2009) ................................. Ex parte Daughtrey No. 2008-0202 (April 8 2009) ...................................................... Ex parte Enenkel No. 2008-2239 (April 6 2009) .......................................................... Ex parte Forman No. 2008-005348 (BPAI Aug. 17 2009) ........................................... Ex parte Goud No. 2008-003121 (BPAI July 20 2009) ............................................ Ex parte Gutta No. 2008-3000 (BPAI Jan. 15 2009) .................................................... Ex parte Halligan No. 2008-2823 (BPAI April 8 2008)............................................. Ex parte Myr No. 2009-005949 (BPAI Sept. 16 2009) .................................................... 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 iii TABLE OF AUTHORITIES--Continued Page Ex parte Nawathe No. 2007-3360 (BPAI Feb. 9 2009) .............................................. CONSTITUTION AND STATUTES 35 U.S.C. 101 (2006) ............................. 6 7 8 21 U.S. Const. art. I 8 .................................... 11 OTHER AUTHORITIES AMERICAN INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW ASSOCIATION REPORT OF THE ECONOMIC SURVEY (2009) ........................................... 16 JAMES BESSEN & MICHAEL J. MEURER PATENT FAILURE: HOW JUDGES BUREAUCRATS AND LAWYERS PUT INNOVATORS AT RISK (2008) ............................... 12 13 14 15 16 James Bessen & Robert Hunt An Empirical Look at Software Patents 16 J. ECON. & MGMT. STRATEGY 157 (2007)... 12 DAN L. BURK & MARK A. LEMLEY THE PATENT CRISIS AND HOW THE COURTS CAN SOLVE IT (2009)........... 11 13 14 15 16 17 COMM. ON INTELLECTUAL PROP. RIGHTS IN THE KNOWLEDGE-BASED ECON. NAT'L RESEARCH COUNCIL PATENTS IN THE KNOWLEDGE-BASED ECONOMY (Wesley M. Cohen & Stephen A. Merrill eds. 2003) .......................................................... 12 CLAYTON M. CHRISTENSEN THE INNOVATOR'S DILEMMA (2006) ............................... 18 Amit Deshpande & Dirk Riehle The Total Growth of Open Source in PROCEEDINGS OF THE FOURTH CONFERENCE ON OPEN SOURCE SYSTEMS 197-209 (Springer Verlag 2008) ............................................. 2 20 iv TABLE OF AUTHORITIES--Continued Page ERIC VON HIPPEL DEMOCRATIZING INNOVATION (2005) ................................................ 4 BEN KLEMENS MATH YOU CAN'T USE PATENTS COPYRIGHT AND SOFTWARE (2006) .............................................. 15 16 17 19 Ben Klemens The Rise of the Information Processing Patent 14 B.U. J. SCI. & TECH. L. 1 (2008) .................................................. 15 18 Donald E. Knuth Letter to Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks (Feb. 23 1994) .......................................................... 13 15 Mark Lemley Ignoring Patents 2008 MICH. ST. L. REV. 19 (Spring 2008) .......... 16 Michael J. Meurer Controlling Opportunistic and Anti-competitive Intellectual Property Litigation 44 B.C. L. REV. 509 (2003) .................................................... 14 17 18 To Promote Innovation: The Proper Balance of Competition and Patent Law and Policy Report of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission ch. 3 V (2003) .................. passim Kirk Rowe Why Pay for What's Free : Minimizing the Patent Threat to Free and Open Source Software 7 J. MARSHALL REV. INTELL. PROP. L. 595 (2008) ............. 13 RICHARD M. STALLMAN FREE SOFTWARE FREE SOCIETY: SELECTED ESSAYS OF RICHARD M. STALLMAN (Joshua Gay ed. 2002) .......................................................... 17 Andrew W. Torrance & Bill Tomlinson Patents and the Regress of Useful Arts 10 COLUM. SCI. & TECH. L. REV. 130 (2009) ......................................................... 12

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