The use of business method patents is highly visible today – consider the patent infringement suits involving Priceline.com’s “name your own price” reverse auction patent and Amazon.com’s “one-click” ...

“Protecting groundbreaking business method innovations is a challenge. Getting meaningful patent protection on the early stage technical inventions required to implement a business method may be ...

Matt Wermager is a patent litigator at the law firm of Vinson & Elkins, LLP. Matt began his training in the art of persuasive argument at age 4, and coupled with his engineering background, has ...

As its name suggests, a business method patent grants to its holder exclusive rights to a particular way of doing business. Until recently, it was widely assumed that business methods were not ...

Bradley Lytle and Philippe Signore examine how finance-related companies are obtaining and enforcing business method patents in the US, and explain why portfolios of such patents are becoming ...

In the last couple of years, a new device has emerged on the legal scene to protect novel ways of conducting commerce. It’s called the business method patent, and it typically covers some combination ...

The prevailing wisdom for some years has been that, generally, the US permits the patenting of business methods and that the EPO does not. In fact, this view has not been correct for some time now.

Since 1998 business methods have been patentable in the United States. This is thanks to the decision of the United States Court of Appeals in State Street Bank & Trust Co. v. Signature Financial ...