Analysis: The �Lorenzo Jones� case emerges (Bilski)

""Jones," an old-time radio figure who thought his creations in a garage would bring him fame and fortune, made an appearance in the first question, by Justice Antonin Scalia.

"Scalia also suggested the seeming absurdity of a patent for Dale Carnegie's influential 1936 book, How to Win Friends and Influence People. But it was the "Lorenzo Jones" comment that set the tone for the entire argument in Bilski, et al., v. Kappos (08-964). It would take a most inventive analyst to find a way in the argument for the risk-management idea under review to fit into the Patent Act's coverage. The idea had no defenders whatsoever on the bench

"The largest question left unanswered when the one-hour argument was over was whether the Court would go forward and issue a major new ruling interpreting patent law, when the practical result here seemed so evident. Lawyers and judges have invested heavy resources in the Bilski case, and it does raise a fundamental question that may well need answering. But, when there may well be no formulation of patent law that would salvage the Bilski-Warsaw creation, why bother?"

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