Bilski v. Kappos: Everything Old is New Again

My goal in this brief Essay is to introduce the symposium papers by describing the basics of the Bilski case. I also offer a brief thought about where interested observers might turn next in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit\u27s § 101 jurisprudence for insights about how that court may implement Bilski\u27s unmistakable revival of Benson and Fook. Specifically, now that the 15-year Alappat/State Street misadventure, with its patent-maximizing useful, concrete, and tangible result standard, has come to an end, it is time to revisit the reasoning and results in a rich trove of cases from the Federal Circuit and its predecessor, the U.S. Court of Customs and Patent Appeals (CCPA)