The imminent appointment of a new justice to the US Supreme Court raises many questions for the business community at home and abroad. But in the long term, none is more crucial than: what will the court do to influence US innovation?

In the term that ended last week, the elderly ladies and gentlemen of the court handed down several rulings at the leading edge of the newest technologies. Their decisions - in cases involving everything from online file sharing to internet access to new drug development - could help shape US innovation for decades to come. And judging from the last term, at least, the court's guiding principle seems to be: do no harm. Whenever it could, the court left technology alone - giving markets a role in shaping the innovation economy.