Bilski Watch: Good Bad and Ugly

Lots of candidates today, but here are the winners.

 

GOOD:

This one looks to have been Bilskified pretty well.  Need the file history to see for sure, but PAIR has been down.  It's to JPMorgan:

United States Patent 7,467,109  System and method for determining eligibility and enrolling members in various programs

 

1. A computer implemented method for enrolling an individual, who has an obligation to a financial institution, in a program wherein at least some financial status information relating to the individual is known, comprising:

• providing by at least one processor a list of payment programs to a user;
• receiving, from the user, a selection of a payment program suitable to the individual's financial circumstances from the list of payment programs;
• determining by the at least one processor whether the individual is eligible to enroll in the selected payment program by performing an evaluation with a processor based at least in part upon the at least some financial status information relating to the individual;
• providing information on the selected payment program to the user based on determining whether the individual is eligible to enroll in the selected payment program;
• receiving enrollment information for the selected first program from the user;
• determining whether the enrollment information meets a set of predetermined criteria for enrolling the individual in the selected payment program by performing an evaluation with a processor on at least part of the enrollment information; and
• enrolling the individual in the selected payment program when the enrollment information meets the set of predetermined criteria and the individual accepts enrollment in the selected payment program.

 

The machine here is the computer and processor, which may or may not be 'particular' (need to look at spec and figs to evaluate), but they did a good job putting as much meat on the bones as they apparently could.

 

 

BAD:

According to Ex parte Halligan, this one is doomed.  Nice try, though.  Assigned to The Olsen Group, of Switzerland.

United States Patent 7,467,110  Method for market making

 

1. A method performed by a computer of market making in an asset trading system, comprising the steps of:

(a) receiving asset price data for a first asset;

(b) receiving current system position information for the first asset;

(c) receiving quote request information for the first asset;

(d) calculating target position information for the first asset for each of one or more trading models; and

(e) calculating with the computer a bid/ask quote in response to said received quote request information, said calculation of a bid/ask quote using a hedging method and being based on said asset price data, said quote request information, said current system position information, and said target position information.

 

 

UGLY:

This one assigned is to Goldman Sachs:

United States Patent 7,467,112 Method for listing a futures contract that physically settles into a swap

 

So it has the transformation right there in the title... not sure what it means to 'physically settle'.  It's not in the claims.  I'm curious about the prosecution history (less than a year from filing to issuance), but I'll have to wait for PAIR. [UPDATE: This application was filed under the Accelerated Examination procedure. 101 is not mentioned in the prosecution history]

 

1. A method of operating an exchange, the method comprising:

listing a futures contract;

receiving an electronic signal that represents an order to buy or an order to sell the futures contract; and

upon settlement of the futures contract, requiring entry into a specified credit default index swap on a specified date against a specified counterparty, wherein

(a)(i) a long position in said futures contract entitles a holder of the long position to receive a fixed side of the specified credit default index swap on the specified date, and (ii) a short position in said futures contract entitles a holder of the short position to receive a floating side of the specified credit default index swap on the specified date; or

(b)(i) a short position in said futures contract entitles the holder of the short position to receive a fixed side of the specified credit default index swap on the specified date, and (ii) a long position in said futures contract entitles the holder of the long position to receive a floating side of the specified credit default index swap on the specified date; said specified counterparty being a clearinghouse.

 

note that the "electronic signal" probably doesn't constitute a particular machine, or an article for transformation -- it's not patentable subject matter under Nuijten.