As I expected it appears that the Supreme Court has ruled somewhat narrowly in the Bilski case (PDF), which many had hoped would end the scourge of business method and software patents. Instead, the court effectively punted the issue. Technically it affirmed the overall decision from the Federal Circuit that Bilski’s specific patent was invalid for being way too broad, but much more importantly for everyone else, it rolled back the Federal Circuit’s “machine-or-transformation” 測試, which many believed effectively ruled out pure software patents. Instead, the court said that the courts “should not read into the patent laws limitations and condi-tions which the legislature has not expressed.” 換句話說, business method and software patents survive.
I’m sure there will be much more analysis of this decision going forward, but on a first pass, despite “affirming” the Federal Circuit ruling, this one looks like a big win for supporters of business method and software patents. 基本, the court just said it would rule on this particular patent and not make any real statements on the overall patentability of business methods or software. 因此，, 生效, it’s no real change on how the patent system works.
SEC的評論觀察: 美國銀行的會計考試
The specter of TARP and troublesome economic times are still haunting Bank of America. In a recently released SEC staff comment letter, several items within the financial institution’s annual financial statements for 2008 were questioned by the SEC.
The staff was particularly keen on seeing an explanation regarding computation of the carrying value of the company’s reporting units. Of particular interest were the impairment tests to goodwill. The staff requested details of the testing, as no impairment to goodwill was recorded. Bank of America’s initial response to this comment was still inadequate for the SEC, as they followed up asking for additional details concerning the bank’s goodwill impairment testing.
Another area of SEC concern was the valuation of the TARP securities. The staff had requested additional information concerning the value of the preferred stock and warrants issued to the Treasury Department. Bank of America’s response spurred even more comments from the staff, probing deeper into the methodology of the company’s fair value determination.
通過 SEC的評論觀察: 美國銀行的會計考試.