It sounds like you're saying that Alice is really about invalidating what Mark Lemley calls functional claiming: attempting to claim components by their function rather than by their structure. I read parts of the Alice opinion, and it seemed like that might be what the justices were getting at, but I didn't see the point made as clearly as I would have liked.
Despite your assurances, I am uncomfortable with this decision. Indeed, I am uncomfortable with Gottschalk v. Benson. I don't think a bright line exists between patent-eligible software and ineligible algorithms -- in this I agree with the Vox article. I would much rather have seen a decision that invalidated this patent on the grounds that taking an existing manual process and computerizing it is, by itself, obvious.
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It sounds like you're saying that Alice is really about invalidating what Mark Lemley calls functional claiming: attempting to claim components by their function rather than by their structure. I read parts of the Alice opinion, and it seemed like that might be what the justices were getting at, but I didn't see the point made as clearly as I would have liked.
Despite your assurances, I am uncomfortable with this decision. Indeed, I am uncomfortable with Gottschalk v. Benson. I don't think a bright line exists between patent-eligible software and ineligible algorithms -- in this I agree with the Vox article. I would much rather have seen a decision that invalidated this patent on the grounds that taking an existing manual process and computerizing it is, by itself, obvious.