USPTO Issues Preliminary Examination Instructions In Light Of Alice Corp.

In Alice Corporation Pty. Ltd. v. CLS Bank International, el al., Case No. 13-298 (decided June 19, 2014)  ("Alice Corp."), the Supreme Court unanimously held that the subject patent claims are not patent-eligible under 35 U.S.C. § 101.  The patents at issue are directed toward a process for mitigating "settlement risk," i.e., for financial exchange transactions, in which a computer system is used as an intermediary between the parties to the transaction.  The patent claims include a method for exchanging financial obligations, a computer system configured to carry out the method, and a computer-program-product claim covering the same process.  The Court held that "the claims at issue are drawn to the abstract idea of intermediated settlement, and that merely requiring generic computer implementation fails to transform that abstract idea into a patent-eligible invention."  Alice Corp., slip op. at 1.