Inventors Given Hope on Business Method Patents
15 July 2010
Rand Warsaw discussing his Supreme Court case at his offices in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania last year.
This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.
Recently, the United States Supreme Court decided a case on the property rights of inventors. The question was whether a business method is enough of an invention to receive a patent. Patents are a form of intellectual property. They give legal protections to individuals and companies against the copying of their inventions.
Bernard Bilski and Rand Warsaw wanted to patent a method to let traders protect against the risk of price changes in energy markets. The United States Patent and Trademark Office said no.
So the inventors went to court. Again they were told no. Finally, the case went all the way to the Supreme Court. Last month, all nine justices said no.
But they only said no to a patent in this case. Patent lawyer Meredith Martin Addy in Chicago explains that the court ruled narrowly.
MEREDITH MARTIN ADDY: "The Supreme Court held that there is no categorical rule denying patent protection for business method patents."
When patent laws were first developed, most patents were for machines. But since the late nineteen nineties, inventors of business methods and processes have increasingly sought patent protection.
Technology companies, especially software makers, watched the case closely. They were concerned that the Supreme Court would require a test of some kind that could limit what can be patented.
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