Software patents—and questions about whether software should actually be patentable at all—have always been a bone of contention among patent professionals. Now the Supreme Court has taken up the issue in Alice Corp. Pty. Ltd. v. CLS Bank International.

The Alice case is the latest in an encouraging trend by the Court to take a more active role in defining and sharpening interpretation of patent law. Overall, this is good news and has the potential to help evolve toward a more predictable patent system.

Alice, in particular, is a somewhat controversial case, and it has court watchers wondering whether and to what degree the ruling might change the definition of software patentability. For some—depending on their point of view—the ruling has the potential to strengthen or weaken the very principle of patent rights.