Slightly off-topic, but a relevant follow-up to an earlier post on a patent for a web-based parcel GIS. Tomorrow the US Supreme Court will hear arguments in what is known as a glut of so-called junk patents.

"Software and hardware makers have long complained that a glut of so-called junk patents threatens to disrupt the way they do business.

One key gripe about the patent process is expected to take center stage before the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday morning. In their third major patent case this year, the justices are scheduled to hear arguments about what courts should consider when deciding whether an invention is too "obvious" to warrant protection. "

Full c|net article is here.

11/28/06 follow up:

"During hour-long oral arguments in a case that's closely watched by thebusiness community, Chief Justice John Roberts suggested that anexisting federal court test for determining patent obviousness reliedtoo little on common sense. Justice Antonin Scalia went so far as tocall the test "gobbledygook" and "meaningless."

"It's worse than meaningless because it complicates the questionrather than focusing on the statute," Roberts went on to say of thetest, which requires evidence of a past "teaching, suggestion ormotivation" that would lead to a particular invention in order for itto be declared "obvious.""

Full article.