Since State Street, Congress and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office have been working to determine how best to handle business method patent applications. A recently introduced bill seeks to impose ...

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 ...

In 2000, 7500 applications for business method patents were filed, and 1000 such patents were issued. Because a large percentage of those patents involve methods of doing business online, they merit ...

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.

On November 9 2009, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in In re Bilski, a case that will likely impact whether business methods, already patented and to be patented, are eligible for patent ...

A U.S. appeals court has rejected patenting a way to smooth energy costs in a closely watched decision that could narrow the scope of "business method" patents. The case turned on whether an inventor ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously rejected on Monday an effort to patent a way to hedge energy costs, but declined to shut the door on business method patents, saying the ...

Imagine receiving a letter from a company offering to let you license a patent covering a computer-related business method for $50,000. Should you pay it? What if the company claims that its patent ...