Federal Circuit Hears Appeal on Business Method Patents
Since the Supreme Court declared business methods to be patentable subject matter in the late 90's, there continues to be more and more patent applications filed for them. With the increasing number of applications comes further pushes on the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to accept more "abstract" business method patent applications. The battle continued recently on May 8, 2008 in the Federal Circuit where oral arguments were heard en banc on appeal of a business method application filed by Bilski that was rejected by the USPTO as being related to an abstract idea and therefore not patentable subject matter. The USPTO position is that business methods which employ only human intelligence without involving machines, manufactures, or compositions of matter do not qualify as patentable subject matter because they are directed to abstract ideas. Take a look at what Bilski is attempting to patent.
The Bilski patent is directed to a method of “hedging” that manages the consumption risk costs of a commodity sold by a commodity provider at a fixed price. In brief, the steps in the process comprise (1) initiating a series of transactions between a commodity provider and commodity consumer, (2) identifying market participants for the commodity with a counter-risk position to consumers, and (3) initiating a series of transactions between the provider and market participants at a fixed rate.
Based on the oral argument and questions presented, the Judges appear to be leaning in favor of Bilski. Such a decision would open the doors to business method patent filings even further.
