The U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in the case In re Bilski, has upheld the ruling of the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences which denied a patent to a business method. A patent was applied for a method of hedging in commodities trading developed by Bernard Bilski and Rand Warsaw.

According to a news report, this development may have a direct impact on the ongoing debate over amendments to the Indian Patent Manual – Manual of Patent Practice and Procedure 2008 – and also on the larger context of software patenting in India. The Patent Manual was put up for comments by the Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trademarks.

The stakeholders are divided in their approach towards the judgement. Some think that it is a positive move towards an appropriate interpretation of innovation and patentability of software whereas others are for more protection for business method patents. The news reports quotes the President of NASSCOM – “The ideas and frameworks for business processes should not be patentable but the content written within those frameworks should be allowed to be copyrighted. Indian law is also within boundaries of the US court judgement.”

Section 3(k) of the Patents Act, 1970 provides that “A mathematical or business method or a computer programme per se or algorithms are not patentable.”

The Bilski Judgement is speculated to be used as a reference for drafting the amendments to the Patent Manual and also in the interpretation of the Indian Patent Act.