In a 9-3 decision, the court upheld a 1997 U.S. Patent Office refusal to issue a patent to Bernard Bilski for a method of managing the risk of bad weather through commodities trading. The court ruled that processes can be patented only if they are implemented by a machine or transform something into a new or different thing.

The case is now likely headed to the Supreme Court for what would be a landmark decision about the scope of patents in the United States.

The Federal Circuit said software and business methods are still patentable but rejected standards set in a 1998 decision that allowed patents on "methods" of doing business so long as the methods involved use of a computer and produced a "useful, concrete and tangible result." That decision opened the door for patents that had no connection to technological innovation.

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