The Supreme Court upheld on Monday a ruling that allows business methods to be patented when they involve a machine or transformation, in a case about a system for hedging against energy cost changes.

The justices affirmed a U.S. appeals court ruling in a case involving Bernard Bilski and Rand Warsaw, who founded a small Pittsburgh company called WeatherWise to sell services based on hedging methods.

(Reporting by Diane Bartz and James Vicini, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)

Intellectual property law Patent