WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Thursday tossed out an Australian company’s patent for business software in a decision that clarifies standards for awarding patents, but not as much as some firms had hoped.

In a case closely watched by technology companies, justices ruled unanimously that the government should not have issued a patent to Alice Corp. in the 1990s because the company simply took an abstract idea that has been around for years and programmed it to run through a computer.