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Blackmoore writes:

US Supreme Court rules against software patents [Announcements] Posted Jun 19, 2014 15:10 UTC (Thu) by corbet

In April, LWN.net reported on the case of Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank International, which addresses the issue of whether ideas implemented in software are patentable. The ruling is now in: a 9-0 decision against patentability. "We hold that the claims at issue are drawn to the abstract idea of intermediated settlement, and that merely requiring generic computer implementation fails to transform that abstract idea into a patent-eligible invention," said Justice Thomas, delivering the opinion of the Court.

From the ruling [PDF]:

Here, the representative method claim does no more than simply instruct the practitioner to implement the abstract idea of intermediated settlement on a generic computer. Taking the claim elements separately, the function performed by the computer at each step - creating and maintaining "shadow" accounts, obtaining data, adjusting account balances, and issuing automated instructions - is "[p]urely 'conventional.'" Mayo, 566 U. S., at ___. Considered "as an ordered combination," these computer components "ad[d] nothing . . . that is not already present when the steps are considered separately."

Id.,at ___. Viewed as a whole, these method claims simply recite the concept of intermediated settlement as performed by a generic computer. They do not, for example, purport to improve the functioning of the computer itself or effect an improvement in any other technology or technical field. An instruction to apply the abstract idea of intermediated settlement using some unspecified, generic computer is not "enough" to transform the abstract idea into a patent-eligible invention.