Business Method Patents

Business Method and Software Patents addresses the drafting of business-method and software patents in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Bilski v. Kappos. Morgan Rosenberg and Richard Apley offer a review and analysis of all relevant case law and guidelines presented by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). With the use of actual patents filed by the authors, this work provides practical information and guidance on the drafting of successful patent applications.

In a landmark decision, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals in Signature Financial v. State Street Bank held that business methods may be patented. Recently, the US Supreme Court in Bilski v. Kappos left the door open for the availability of patents for business methods. These holdings, together with the explosive growth of electronic commerce and technology, make the business method patent an important growth area of intellectual property. Now in a revised Looseleaf format, this completely updated Second Edition of Business Method Patents is your guide to the unique opportunities and risks in this emerging area of intellectual property law. Business Method Patents, Second Edition is your authoritative source for expert guidance on: The landmark Supreme Court decision in Bilski v. Kappos USPTO view on business method patents, including an overview of BPAI rulings Mechanics of the patent application Prior art searches Drafting claims for business method or model and e-commerce inventions Drafting the complete specification Drawings required for business method patents Building a strategic patent portfolio Litigating business method patents International protection for business methods

The U.S. patent system is in an accelerating race with human ingenuity and investments in innovation. In many respects the system has responded with admirable flexibility, but the strain of continual technological change and the greater importance ascribed to patents in a knowledge economy are exposing weaknesses including questionable patent quality, rising transaction costs, impediments to the dissemination of information through patents, and international inconsistencies. A panel including a mix of legal expertise, economists, technologists, and university and corporate officials recommends significant changes in the way the patent system operates. A Patent System for the 21st Century urges creation of a mechanism for post-grant challenges to newly issued patents, reinvigoration of the non-obviousness standard to quality for a patent, strengthening of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, simplified and less costly litigation, harmonization of the U.S., European, and Japanese examination process, and protection of some research from patent infringement liability.

This volume assembles papers commissioned by the National Research Council's Board on Science, Technology, and Economic Policy (STEP) to inform judgments about the significant institutional and policy changes in the patent system made over the past two decades. The chapters fall into three areas. The first four chapters consider the determinants and effects of changes in patent "quality." Quality refers to whether patents issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) meet the statutory standards of patentability, including novelty, nonobviousness, and utility. The fifth and sixth chapters consider the growth in patent litigation, which may itself be a function of changes in the quality of contested patents. The final three chapters explore controversies associated with the extension of patents into new domains of technology, including biomedicine, software, and business methods.