"[…] The Court recognizes the value of […] the “machine or transformation” test – but rejects it as the exclusive tool for determining patentability. And the Court explained that its holding was not intended to preclude the Federal Circuit’s development of additional standards to govern business method patents, so long as they do not impose a rule inconsistent with the statutory text.[…] Today’s short opinion is principally one of negation – it rejects an exclusive standard adopted by the en banc Federal Circuit. […] The Court did not otherwise elaborate on the proper test. Nonetheless, “the machine-or-transformation test is a useful and important clue, and investigative tool, for determining whether some claimed inventions are processes under §101.” The breadth of today’s ruling is an open question. Justice Kennedy seemingly suggested that the Court favored the basic patent eligibility “of inventions in the Information Age,” including to some extent with respect to “software, advanced diagnostic medicine techniques, and inventions based on linear programming, data compression, and the manipulation of digital signals.” But that part of the opinion is only a plurality – not controlling – because Justice Scalia did not join that discussion […]. The upshot for the time beings is that business method patents survive, and likely are somewhat more patentable than under the Federal Circuit’s standard, though how much more so remains opaque."
Source: SCOTUSblog: http://www.scotusblog.com/2010/06/today%E2%80%99s-opinion-in-bilski/
