Professor Mark Lemley spoke with The Daily Journal's Rachel Swan about the en banc ruling and how he is optimistic it may help an "extremely muddled and panel-dependent law."

A federal appeals court decided Tuesday to grapple again with whether some computerized business methods are patentable, a question that already has intellectual property experts buzzing.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, based in Washington, D.C., agreed to consider en banc a case involving whether an Australian company's data processing patents are patent-eligible. CLS Bank International v. Alice Corporation Pty. Ltd., 2011-1301.

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Mark A. Lemley, a professor at Stanford Law School, hopes the en banc ruling will help clarify an extremely "muddled and panel-dependant law."

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Still, Lemley is cautiously optimistic. In the amorphous realm of patent law, any en banc decision will help.