LEGAL REPOR T: INTELLECTUAL PROPERT Y
or if it transforms an article into another state or thing. Rather than the sole mea- sure of patent eligibility, the "machine or transformation" test is a "useful and important clue, an investigative tool for deciding whether a process invention sat- isfied Section 101." Relying solely on the "machine or
transformation" test "could create uncer- tainty as to the patentability of software, advanced diagnostic medicine techniques,
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and the manipulation of digital signals," notes Abecassis. Bernard Bilski's patent application was not rejected because it could be implemented without the use of a computer or part of a business method, but because it dealt with abstract ideas, he says. Abstract ideas, laws of nature, and physical phenomena cannot be pat- ented and "an algorithm itself is therefore not patentable." He adds the court did not offer a "satisfying account of what
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Editors of the Canadian Patent Reporter
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