Abstract:
The patenting of business methods has been an issue in different jurisdictions not
only after the US Federal Circuit held in 1998 that business methods are eligible for
patent protection thereby abolishing the policy of former Courts and the United States
Patent and Trademark Office to follow the “business method exception”, according to
which business methods in general did not qualify as patentable subject matter.
Nevertheless, this decision has raised public interest and gives reason to compare the
attempts in different jurisdictions in regard to the patenting of business methods.
In the last years, the call for a more defined scope of patent law has increased and
recent decisions have required some kind of a technical link for a method to be patenteligible.
This has been the attempt in the European Union for a while and seems to
develop within US jurisdiction as well. In New Zealand, there seems to be the most
radical way approaching: the Patent Bill 2008 recommends the exemption of software
from patent-eligibility, a measure that will have a huge effect on the patent-eligibility of
business methods.
This course of action gives reason to examine the position of business methods in
the field of patent law as such: do business methods fall into the scope of patent law or
are there other incentives more suitable to protect business methods?
