Software Engineer Sues US Supreme Court to Clarify Patent Eligibility Standards

A software engineer's patent dispute with Google has reached the U.S. Supreme Court, where he is seeking clarification on the standard for software patent eligibility.

Jeff Kohler developed a web conferencing system in the early 2000s and filed for a patent without an attorney's help, which was issued in 2010.

Kohler sued Google after seeing similarities between his invention and YouTube's live video features, but the court invalidated his patent citing the 2014 Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank International ruling.

The Supreme Court has repeatedly declined to revisit the standard set by Alice, which critics say is ill-suited for software patents that often rely on existing hardware.