Groklaw's Report from the CLS Bank v. Alice En Banc Hearing at the Federal Circuit ~pj Updated

I hope you were not expecting too much from today's en banc hearing by the Federal Circuit on CLS Bank v. Alice. A split decision is the best we can hope for, according to Bloomberg's report on the day's festivities, Google Joins JPMorgan in Seeking Software Patent Limits, quoting a patent lawyer, Brad Wright:

Based on their questions and their past rulings, the judges seemed divided, said Brad Wright, a patent lawyer with Banner & Witcoff in Washington who attended the hearing. "The court appears fractured and a split decision is likely," Wright said.

Fractured. Indeed. Le mot juste. A split decision is what Mark Lemley predicted, as well.

I have collected a couple of other reports on the hearing, and then we have our own. Ours is hilarious, in the way that only geek pain plus indignation plus despair plus a touch of amazement at tech cluelessness can provide.

Yes. Another 'is software patentable' case. Or is this patent so blazingly obvious it is invalid? If so, how about if the patent claims the magic happens when folks do it "using a computer"?