In a recent appeal from a Board of Patent Appeals decision, the Federal Circuit affirmed the Board's rejection of a patent application's claims directed to a process for hedging risk in commodities markets because the claims were not patent-eligible under § 101. Key Points: 1) The Federal Circuit rejected the current test for patentability of processes and adopted a narrower standard. 2) Patent protection for business methods must somehow be tied to a machine or the true purpose of the method must transform an article or data to a different state or thing. Royal W. Craig, Jed R. Spencer, Christopher F. Lonegro, and Kyle E. Conklin of Ober|Kaler look at the case.