[Panel 1] Section 101, Bilski & Alice and abstract ideas

This panel will explore the challenges of the Supreme Court's eligibility decisions as applied to computer-implemented inventions. Many observers believe that the rubric of "abstract ideas," which the Court has declined to define, creates massive uncertainty and unreliability, both for pending patent applications and issued patents that may be asserted in enforcement proceedings. The risk is that investments in R & D and product commercialization will be discouraged and diminished, thereby impeding "progress in science and useful arts," the mandate for patents in the US Constitution. Possible fixes for this problem will be examined, including impending legislation. Finally, the panel will compare the scope of eligibility in the United States with the far wider scope available in Europe and Asia, especially China.