C3 Patent and Intellectual Property Law

Jun292010 | Steve O'Donnell

Bilski didn’t change much except my dinner plans

I (and every patent lawyer) have been anxiously awaiting the Supreme Court’s decision in Bilski, which should have given us a handle on when business method and software patents were patentable. The decision came down yesterday, and the Court punted.

Most patent attorneys had expected J. Stevens to write the opinion and guessed that it would tamp down on the patentability of business method and software patents. J. Stevens didn’t write the majority, and the opinion didn’t really change anything, or leave us with a clear indication of when business methods or software were patentable or not.

For the last few months I had some thoughts on what this post should be, I expected some softer rule than what the Fed Cir had stated, but we didn’t get a rule, only a dodge.

I anticipated a flurry of analysis and writing today and planned on picking up dinner while coming home from getting my kids at daycare to free a few more minutes for drafting. Since the Court didn’t give me much to work with, I decided that rather than trying to expound on a narrow ruling that gives little or no guidance, I instead will just write about what I made for dinner last night since the Court was kind enough to free me from my expected burden. So, here it is, Green Curry Macaroni and Cheese:

This recipe was based on Alton Brown’s Baked Mac & Cheese and inspired by Roger Mooking’s Curried Mac & Cheese.

Baked Green Curry Macaroni and Cheese

ingredients
1/2 pound elbow macaroni
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons green curry paste
3 cups milk
4 teaspoons coconut extract
1/2 cup yellow onion, finely diced
1 large egg
12 ounces provolone
1 teaspoon kosher salt
black pepper
fresh Cilantro

directions
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a large pot of boiling, salted water cook the pasta to al dente.
3. While the pasta is cooking, in a separate pot, melt the butter. Whisk in the flour and keep it moving for about five minutes. Make sure it's free of lumps. Stir in the milk, onion, and curry paste. Simmer for ten minutes.
4. Temper in the egg. Stir in cheese and heat till melted. Season with salt and pepper. Fold the macaroni into the mix and pour into a 2-quart casserole dish.
5. Top with cilantro for service.

Notes: the curry paste container says to use 4T per can of coconut milk. . . which would translate to about 6T for this recipe. I find that to be waaayyy to hot, so I went with a third of that (and it's still pretty spicy, and I'm a guy that drenches pizza with hot sauce). I considered using coconut milk instead of milk+extract but I was concerned that the recipe needed the protein in the milk. . . plus, coconut milk is pretty fatty and there's already a bunch of fat from the cheese. I went with provolone because it’s a mild cheese and wouldn’t compete with the curry paste. The mix is very wet before it goes into the oven, but firms up nicely during the bake. When it was still hot from the oven, the curry spiciness was stronger than I anticipated, but as the dish sat, the spiciness mellowed yet was still very flavorful.

And no, this recipe isn’t patented.