Business Method Patent Proliferation: Convergence of Transactional Analytics and Technical Scientifics

Section 101 of the patent law permits four, somewhat overlapping, yet broad categories of patentable inventions: 1. process, 2. machine, 3. articles of manufacture, and 4. composition of matter. Traditionally, business methods have not been patentable. Many in the patent bar have assumed that patent application claims describing methods of doing business (MoDB) are not "directed toward statutor(ily permissible) subject matter." MoDB claims are, however, more appropriately rejected under current law as unpatentable for lack of novelty and/or as obvious. There are additional issues of institutional and public policy that should be examined in the emerging debate over MoDB. These issues include: 1. the scope of MoDB patents, 2. the rigors of MoDB patent prosecution and infringement litigation, 3. development of a useful definition for MoDB, and 4. maintenance of a useful balance between the innovation incentives produced by strong intellectual property rights versus society's need for a replete public domain.