PaulPA - 7:27 pm on Jun 28, 2010 (gmt 0)

Justices Take Broad View of Business Method Patents [nytimes.com]

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, for example, asked whether there could be a patent on a method of speed dating. Justice Stephen G. Breyer asked whether he should be able to obtain a patent for his “great, wonderful, really original method of teaching antitrust law” that “kept 80 percent of the students awake.” The decision, however, closed off no options to patent seekers, though the justices unanimously declared that the process at issue in the case could not be patented.

Many involved in Internet companies had feared the worst when this case went to the Supreme Court since business method patents have been an important form of protection for their business model. But it appears their fears were not realized as the business method patent is not dead.

[edited by: engine at 4:13 pm (utc) on Jul 1, 2010]
[edit reason] added quote [/edit]