SHOULD PATENTS BE GRANTED ON OFFLINE BUSINESS PROCESSES BY ADDING AN ONLINE COMPONENT?
A. THE PRESS SAYS NO; THE FEDERAL CIRCUIT SAYS YES. Influential press (electronic & print) have roundly criticized the grant of patents covering business methods. An August 18, 1999 column in the San Jose Mercury harshly criticized what one columnist saw as the practice of granting patents on “every kind of offline business process by simply adding an online component.” The hostility of that columnist to patenting business methods is exemplified by the title of his article “Absurdity Can Be Patented – The Patent Office Proves It.” Salon.com recently raised the rhetorical bar by asserting that the owner of Priceline, Jay Walker, is “accumulating new patents, each seemingly broader than the last, that would theoretically give him ownership of the business models common in whole industries.” Sounds like the same complaints that have circulated over the past decade about Lemelson’s patents. Whatever the press thinks, the Federal Circuit has left no doubt as to the enforceability of busines
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