Patent Law

"Return Phone Calls Within 24 Hours, Use Spell Check, Don't Ever Hit 'Reply All'" Not Patentable

By Les Weinstein, Michael Young, John Leo Wagner, Eric van Ginkel, and Victoria Pynchon

I'm not certain whether all of my IP ADR colleagues think business method patents are . . . well . . . ridiculous like I do, not to mention yet another way to stifle innovation,  ingenuity and the collaborative commercial spirit that made our economy great, but they'll have to weigh in now if they don't agree that this is very good news American business  . . . . 

Tech Crunch tells us today that Your Business Method Patent Has Just Been Invalidated, and not a moment too soon for an ailing economy, say I.  Snippet below.  Click above for full article.

If you are one of the recipients of the 1,300 business method patents issued in the U.S. last year, or the thousands more that have been issued rampantly and indiscriminately over the past decade, you are probably out of luck. The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. ruled today that business methods are not patentable unless they meet fairly narrow rules. What this means for Internet companies and patent trolls alike is that many of their existing patents may be invalid—at least until the case is heard by the Supreme Court, assuming it is appealed.

Full post as published by IP ADR Blog on October 30, 2008 (boomark / email).