The government has just filed a brief [PDF] stating its position in the Bilski case, and Patently O describes it like this:

In its responsive brief, the Obama Administration asks the Supreme Court to confirm that a patentable process must be tethered to technology - either "directed to the operation of a particular machine or apparatus" or "involve the transformation of matter into a different state or thing."

What about software, then? I read the brief as sending a mixed message, or more accurately an unfinished one, and indeed the brief states that Bilski isn't the right case to decide that issue anyway, since it's about a method of hedging commodities trading without any computer connection.

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