Practical steps for patenting software post Bilski

The US Supreme Court´s holding in Bilski v Kappos limits software developers attempting to patent inventions using method claims. The Bilski holding limited the scope of business method patents to those that claim a method hosted on a machine or those that effect a transformation of a particular article into a different state or thing. While today´s scope of method claims is more limited than before Bilski, inventors can still effectively patent software inventions. This paper presents practical suggestions for patenting software inventions described by a method claim. The Supreme Court´s holding is discussed, then using a scenario of an interest in patenting a method of finding the roots of a polynomial, several claim formats will be reviewed.