Welcome to Patents and Trademarks Guide
Who Buys Patents Article
. For a permanent link to this article, or to bookmark it for further reading, click here.
Patent - Business Method Patents - Part I
from: Michael RussellIn this first of a series of articles we're going to discuss a
specific type of patent called a business method patent.
If a company develops a new method for conducting an e-commerce
business they may be able to prevent other companies from using
this method for almost twenty years.
The truth is, since 1998 an increasing number of software and
Internet companies have been issued patents for designing new
ways of doing business. Examples would be new online ordering
processes or a unique Internet advertising method. These kind of
patents which are usually the combination of software and
business methods are called business method patents or Internet
patents.
The reason these patents are important is because a company that
develops such a patent can keep other companies from using these
business methods for 17 years. And if the owner wants, he can
make additional money from the patent by licensing out to other
companies. If there is a large enough market, the company may
make more money from the licenses than from the patent itself.
A very good example of a business method patent is Amazon.com's
1-click payment method. This system allows a customer to bypass
the traditional address and credit card forms as long as the
customer has an account with Amazon. After clicking on the
payment button the order automatically goes through. This patent
was granted to Amazon.com in September 1999. The patent number
is U.S. Pat No. 5,960,411.
Business method patents are actually a part of a larger family
of patents called utility patents. These protect inventions,
chemical formulas, processes and other discoveries. A business
method is technically classified as a process. The reason is
because it is not a physical object like a machine or some form
of chemical compound.
During most of the last century the patent office issued very
few business method patents. The reason for this is that they
claimed that a process could not be patented if it was an
abstract idea. The same thing was also said about software
because software was said to be unpredictable algorithms.
That all changed in 1998. In July of that year a federal court
upheld a patent for a method of calculating the net asset value
of mutual funds. The court ruled that patent laws were intended
to protect any method regardless of what it was, even an idea.
As long as it produced a useful, concrete and tangible result.
With this ruling the court made idea and software patents a
reality again. After this ruling, business method patents
increased by 40%. Also, that year, the U.S. Patent and Trademark
Office created a new classification for business method patents.
The classification is stated as "Data processing: financial,
business practice, management or cost/price determination."
Many patents since this time have been issued for online
shopping programs, Amazon's 1-click being the best example.
However, because of the gray area of these patents, not having a
physical product, an additional layer of review was added to the
patent determination process. Technology specialists have been
hired specifically to review these type of patent applications.
In the next article in this series we're going to discuss how to
go about applying for a business method patent.
About the author:
Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to
Who Buys Patents News
Mobile Sports Report TechWatch: Facebook buys Karma - Mobile Sports Report
 msnbc.com | Mobile Sports Report TechWatch: Facebook buys Karma Mobile Sports Report This approval was the last before the deal can go through and give Google access to Motorola's huge patent portfolio and manufacturing capabilities. According to a report from the AP the deal has a condition- Google must make the Android operating ... China Approves Google - Motorola Deal, Wants Android To Remain Open Source |
Alibaba buys back 20 percent stake held by Yahoo for $7.1 billion - CNBC.com
 Telegraph.co.uk | Alibaba buys back 20 percent stake held by Yahoo for $7.1 billion CNBC.com According to the statement, Alibaba would buy back half of Yahoo's remaining stake - a 10 percent holding - at the IPO price or allow Yahoo to sell those shares in the offering before end-2015. Alibaba Group is valued at $30-35 billion. Alibaba buys back shares from Yahoo |
Facebook buys patents from Microsoft - MSN Money
Facebook buys patents from Microsoft MSN Money The social networking giant now has around 1500 patents, which should help strengthen its defenses against lawsuits. By Trefis Thu 1:20 PM Facebook was recently sued by Yahoo (YHOO) for patent infringement in the run-up to its IPO in May. |
Aware surges after Intel buys patents for $75 million - ZDNet (blog)
Aware surges after Intel buys patents for $75 million ZDNet (blog) By Zack Whittaker | April 27, 2012, 8:55am PDT Summary: Aware sells $75 million worth of patents to Intel as part of the chipmaker's efforts to increase its patent portfolio in the wake of global intellectual property wars. |
Intellectual Ventures buys LTE patents with Nvidia - TechFlash
 VentureBeat | Intellectual Ventures buys LTE patents with Nvidia TechFlash The companies did not disclose how much they paid for the patents, which cover Long Term Evolution, LTE-Advanced and 3G/4G cellular technologies, but the two companies will share licensing rights. IPWireless, which will be purchased by General Dynamics ... NVIDIA buys 500 patents to take on Qualcomm |
Alibaba buys back 20 pct stake held by Yahoo for $7.1 bln - IBNLive.com
Alibaba buys back 20 pct stake held by Yahoo for $7.1 bln IBNLive.com According to the statement, Alibaba would buy back half of Yahoos remaining stake - a 10 percent holding - at the IPO price or allow Yahoo to sell those shares in the offering before end-2015. Alibaba Group is valued at $30-35 billion. |
Aware surges after Intel buys patents $75 million - ZDNet (blog)
 V3.co.uk | Aware surges after Intel buys patents $75 million ZDNet (blog) By Zack Whittaker | April 27, 2012, 8:55am PDT Summary: Aware sells $75 million worth of patents to Intel as part of the chipmaker's efforts to increase its patent portfolio in the wake of global intellectual property wars. Intel Buys Patent Portfolio from Aware, Includes Wifi and LTE Patents Intel buys $75 million worth of patents from Aware Inc. |