When:
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Meeting - 11:30 a.m. - 12:00 noon
Program - 12:00 noon - 1:00 p.m.

Where:
MSBA Office
600 Nicollet Mall #380
3rd Floor - City Center
Minneapolis

Cost:
Free

NOTE: You must be an MSBA member to use this function. You should receive an email confirming your online registration.  If you do not, please contact Kayla Jurrens at kjurrens@mnbar.org.

REGISTER ONLINE BY:
Monday 01/12/09

OR send registration form with payment to:
MSBA
Attn: Kayla Jurrens
600 Nicollet Mall #380
Minneapolis, MN 55402
Fax: 612-333-4927

Presenter:
Christopher Hilberg, Oppenheimer Wolff & Donnelly LLP
James C. Evans, Beck & Tysver PLLC

The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in In re Bilski, 545 F3d 943 (Fed. Cir. 2008) (en banc) has introduced considerable uncertainty regarding the law of patent eligibility of software-related claims.   Without overruling State Street Bank & Trust Co. v. Signature Fin. Group, 149 F.3d 1368 (Fed. Circ. 1998), cert. denied, 525 U.S. 1093 (1999), in which it had held software inventions and computer systems to be broadly patent eligible, the CAFC articulated the test of what is required for a process to be "statutory" within the Patent Act.  The opinion also explicitly left open whether or when tying software processes to a general purpose computer will suffice to rescue subject-matter eligibility.  Bilski may impact many of the software patents that have been applied for in the decade since State Street, and will at a minimum, for new applications, constrain how claims are drafted.

Chris Hilberg and Chris Evans will argue opposite sides regarding the subject-matter eligibility of several hypothetical software patent claims in order to illustrate the possible consequences of the opinion.

Remember to visit our Section blog! Recent posts include the following:

  * Computer illiteracy no defense for spoliation
  * Distance learning law grad granted exception to sit for Massachusetts Bar
  * In re Bilski: Patenting Processes
  * News of the weird: popular blog's domain hijacked and held for ransom.

To guarantee a lunch,
please register by January 12, 2009.