Nov. 7--On Monday, all the time and money spent on appeals, and the estimated million of dollars of business lost to competitors come to a head: Both sides in what's known as the Bilski case will have 30 minutes to make their arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court.

"If I knew then what I know now, I don't think I would have filed for a patent, it's been a 13-year uphill fight," said Rand Warsaw, who with Bilski had formed a company named WeatherWise USA on the South Side.

A Supreme Court ruling concerning Bilski, an opinion not expected before late spring, could have major repercussions in both the patent world and the business world, legal experts said.

Financial services companies such as banks, mutual funds companies, commodities traders and investment banks could feel the impact of the ruling, according to experts.

"The impact of the court ruling could have a pretty substantial impact on the patent world," said Michael Madison, a professor of law and associate dean for research at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. "This is as major a patent case the Supreme Court has heard in about 30 years."

"A ruling by the court does pose a risk of unwinding numerous previously granted method-process patents," said Dave Oberdick of counsel for the law firm Meyer, Unkovic & Scott in Pittsburgh.

"The outcome of the Bilski case at the Supreme Court is very unpredictable," said David Hanson, an attorney with The Webb Law Firm, Downtown, who represents Warsaw and Bilski.

"It would appear the court recognized the wide effect this case would have on certain types of patents and possibly the court was uncomfortable with the way the case was decided by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit."

One year ago, Warsaw and Bilski lost 9-3 at the U.S. Court of Appeals, which sided with the Patent Office's 1997 rejection of their WeatherWise patent.

The Appeals Court took what some experts considered a conservative approach to determine what is patentable. It said to receive a patent, the Bilski method of doing business had to include a machine or transform one substance into another.

The Bilski method uses hedging principles, techniques designed to eliminate or reduce financial risk, such as taking two positions that will offset each other if prices change.

Warsaw has said the process involved in the Supreme Court case is used in WeatherWise's WeatherProof Bill products for electric or natural gas utilities and energy marketers who want to offer their customers capped or fixed prices.