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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Software, biotech firms and others who develop new ways to do business will be watching closely on Monday as the U.S. Supreme Court hears a case that could determine if such ...

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 ...

Guidelines, set to go into effect on April 1st in China, continue to leave the window open for software and business method patents. For software patents, patent applicants will be able to claim a ...

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.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Supreme Court said on Monday that it would hear the Bilski patent case, which will tell high-tech and software companies how far they can go in patenting software, financial ...