Changes

== The dissents ==

== The dissents ==

Several judges dissented.  Judge Mayer felt the Court opinion did not go far enough, and should have categorically excluded from future patents all business methods (see above).

Three judges dissented.  Judge Mayer felt the Court opinion did not go far enough, and should have categorically excluded from future patents all business methods (see above). He wrote that "[t]he majority's proposed "machine-or-transformation test" for patentability will do little to stem the growth of patents on non-technological methods and ideas. Quite simply, in the context of business method patent applications, the majority's proposed standard can be too easily circumvented. ...  Through clever draftsmanship, nearly every process claim can be rewritten to include a physical transformation. Bilski, for example, could simply add a requirement that a commodity consumer install a meter to record commodity consumption. He could then argue that installation of this meter was a 'physical transformation,' sufficient to satisfy the majority's proposed patentability test."  Judge Mayer stated, "The majority's approach will encourage rent-seeking on a broad range of human thought and behavior. For example, because organizing a country into a democratic or socialist regime clearly involves a physical transformation, what is to prevent patents from issuing on forms of government?"

Several other dissents argued that the Court went too far in excluding subject matter from patentability.  Judge Newman dissented on these grounds:

Two additional Judges dissented on the grounds that the Court went too far in excluding subject matter from patentability.  Judge Newman stated:

:The court thus excludes many of the kinds of inventions that apply today's electronic and photonic technologies, as well as other processes that handle data and information in novel ways. Such processes have long been patent eligible, and contribute to the vigor and variety of today's Information Age. This exclusion of process inventions is contrary to statute, contrary to precedent, and a negation of the constitutional mandate. Its impact on the future, as well as on the thousands of patents already granted, is unknown.

:The court thus excludes many of the kinds of inventions that apply today's electronic and photonic technologies, as well as other processes that handle data and information in novel ways. Such processes have long been patent eligible, and contribute to the vigor and variety of today's Information Age. This exclusion of process inventions is contrary to statute, contrary to precedent, and a negation of the constitutional mandate. Its impact on the future, as well as on the thousands of patents already granted, is unknown.