Software that merely uses generic computing hardware to perform a pre-existing abstract idea is not patent eligible. Decided June 19, 2014 (argued March 31, 2014). Opinion of the Court: Clarence Thomas → go there Topic: Copyright/Patents. Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank International, 573 U.S. 208 (2014), was a 2014 United States Supreme Court decision about patent eligibility of business method patents. The issue in the case was whether certain patent claims for a computer-implemented, electronic escrow service covered abstract ideas, which would make the claims ineligible for patent protection. The patents were held to be invalid, because the claims were drawn to an abstract idea, and implementing those claims on a computer was not enough to transform that abstract idea into patentable subject matter. Wiki link