The Supreme Court’s Decision in Alice Makes Us Wonder
Yesterday, the Supreme Court announced their decision in Alice Corporation Pty. Ltd. v. CLS Bank International, which invalidated the patents at issue. There's a "big picture" here, but there's some smaller, more intriguing parts of the decision that are going to keep our brains working for the next few days. On the big picture side, the Court said simply implementing a well-known abstract concept using software does not make that abstract concept patentable, a fairly common-sense, widely supported proposition. The court was also clear that software [...]
Jonathan Zuck speaks on mHealth in Brussels
Today, ACT President Jonathan Zuck traveled to Brussels to speak about the mobile health landscape in Europe at the 2014 European mHealth Conference. Ray Pinto of Microsoft and leaders from the European mobile medical industry joined Jonathan on a panel about developing standards for coordinated, interoperable and universal mHealth solutions, particularly in the area of electronic health records. mHealth offers new opportunities for better, more efficient health outcomes as innovation in medical devices and apps continues to flourish. Their success [...]
Apps and Autism
Last week, NPR's Morning Edition featured a story about a Queens school for children within the autism spectrum that use iPads in class and to play in their high school band. It's the type of story we're accustomed to hearing at ACT | The App Association. Most of the country first learned about the incredible impact apps have had educating children with autism from Leslie Stahl's Sixty Minutes segment on apps for autism in 2011.
Supreme Court Decision Clarifies Software Patentability
Today’s Supreme Court decision Alice Corporation Pty. Ltd. v. CLS Bank International addressed the patentability of abstract ideas. It confirmed what we all know to be true: abstract business methods don’t deserve patent protection. This is good news for software developers. Today's decision clarifies what is patentable and removes a degree of uncertainty. It also reaffirms the validity of software patents which are a valuable tool for small company innovators.
A Majority of House Members Say It’s Time to Change Government Surveillance Law
The Electronic Communications Privacy Act was enacted 1986 when stored electronic communications didn’t extend beyond answering machines for most Americans. At the time, only a handful of people were even aware of the internet. Since its enactment, the rapid growth of technology has allowed consumers to use cloud-based services to access their email, health data, and location information from wherever they are. ECPA is outdated legislation that can no longer meet these demands of our mobile economy. The Email Privacy [...]