The Supreme Court is expected to render a decision on the case by the end of June.

Previously, hope that the Supreme Court would end the software patent problem , which could have all but eliminated the problem if the Supreme Court had issued a ruling that made "business process" patents difficult or impossible to obtain. Most software patents fall into the "business process" category. The Supreme Court's ruling on Bilski, however, managed to sidestep that issue and create more confusion, not less.

Julie Bort writes the Microsoft Update and Source Seeker blogs for Network World's Microsoft Subnet and Open Source Subnet community sites. Follow Bort on Twitter @Julie188.

in Network World's Software section.