| The Democrats...The Republicans... It always seems evenhanded to blame both sides. When Bilsky came to the Supreme Court, there were four justices that signed onto a dissent suggesting that business methods and software were not patentable subject matter. They were Stevens, Breyer, Sotomayor, and Ginsburg. Four justices stood for patentability in general, but just not Bilsky's patent; they were Kennedy, Roberts, Thomas, and Alito. Scalia joined each opinion in part. That's four so-called 'liberal' justices for software freedom and four 'conservatives' for more patents on software. Not exactly an even division of partisan blame. In CLS Bank v. Alice before the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the division is more between the generalists (good) and patent specialists (evil). The CAFC governs federal employment and some international trade matters so there are some generalists. The patent reform side was one patent lawyer and four generalists; the unlimited patents side ("everything under the sun made by man" - actual quote) was four patent lawyers and one with the unusual specialties of federal employment and intellectual property law. The good guys were Bush-Clinton-Bush-Obama-Obama appointees and the baddies Reagan-Bush-Clinton-Bush-Obama, with only a slight and insignificant D/R lead for good, in contrast to the Supremes. Maybe Congress is ineffective on both partisan benches and in both houses. It certainly seems so in recent years. Nevertheless, the courts are where patent law is made. And there is a clear partisan split between good and evil on our supreme court. |