The memorable line from the KSR oral arguments was Justice Scalia's criticism of Federal Circuit precedent as “gobbledygook.”
The Court heard oral arguments today in Mayo v. Prometheus. The best one-liner from oral arguments comes from Justice Breyer. As you might expect, Justice Breyer's statement is not as colorful as Justice Scalia's, but it is likely more accurate.
JUSTICE BREYER: If you look at the Court's cases, they seem to say Flook, one thing, and Diehr another thing.
Justice Breyer's statement highlights a central problem of modern patentable subject matter doctrine — that the quartet of leading decisions contradict one another. The court failed to move the ball in its 2010 Bilski decision and instead simply stated that the proper path is to follow these cases.
- We'll be posting a more complete discussion of the oral arguments tomorrow.
- Read the transcript (draft).
