Glimpses of Hope: Protecting Software Innovations After Alice

By Ashley Sloat and Kristen Wolff

​Software patenting has come under intense scrutiny in the last decade. Since the landmark case, Alice Corporation PTY. LTD. v. CLS Bank International, there has been a slow trickle of patents found valid under 35 U.S.C. §101. In this seminar, we will review these court cases and distill the opinions down into a set of drafting tips that will increase the probability that your software claims are patentable. However, in the event that your software claims are not a good fit for patenting, we will also discuss various alternative strategies for protecting software. These alternative strategies include advantages and disadvantages that we will also discuss. 

Part 1
• Overview of relevant software patent court cases
• Specification/claim drafting tips to hedge your bets for section 101

Part 2
• Alternatives to patents for protecting software innovations
• Advantages and disadvantages to not patenting software

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