Supreme court case that might impact webmasters

[$5 submissions]

Since much of our livelihood depend on technology, patent disputes might impact some of our bottomlines. Here's an interesting analysis of a case recently decided by the US Supreme Court that may offer some respite (yes, I used that word... live with it!) to those wearied by the PTO's recent patent frenzy.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ide...ous/?page=full

The money quote: "Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the court, argued that the current patent regime threatened to stifle the sort of creativity that the Founding Fathers had originally created the system to foster. Courts, Kennedy wrote, have been upholding patents for technologies or designs that didn't need them, that would have been developed "in the ordinary course" of events. In doing so, they have allowed bogus inventions to steal business from legitimate ones, and discouraged true innovation.

To correct this, the Supreme Court made it more difficult for patent applicants to claim that they've actually invented something, while also making it easier for older patents to be challenged."