Some had hoped the court would seize the opportunity to lay out some clear
rules about inventions that deal with methods and processes, saying explicitly what types can be patented and what can not.
Arkady Ostrovsky, Moscow bureau chief for The Economist, has won the 2016 Orwell Prize for his book The
Invention of Russia: The Journey From Gorbachev's Freedom to Putin's War (Atlantic Books),
about how a country that liberated itself from 70 years of Soviet
rule ended up as one of the biggest threats to the West.
In these
rulings — Berkheimer v. HP [PDF] and Aatrix Software v. Green Shades Software [PDF]-- the court suggests that the decision under Alice,
about what makes an
invention patent eligible, is a heavily factual inquiry.