U.S. Supreme Court Deals a Blow to Software Patents
In a unanimous decision, the U.S. Supreme Court has declared that “abstract ideas” are not patentable. While this decision doesn’t completely eliminate software patents, it does require that such patents rely on “concrete improvements or new designs, not an aggregation of existing steps.”
Nothing new in that "abstract ideas" are not patentable in the USA. That's the statute, 35 USC 101. What are patentable are "new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof." Plus plants and designs.
What sometimes gets fuzzy is when an invention involving software is more than just the idea.