The Patent Pendulum — Part 1

In the past 12 months, two significant decisions (one in Canada, the other in the United States) have the potential to dramatically recalibrate the scope of patent protection for so-called "business methods" (and possibly "software inventions" as well). These cases may herald a backward swing of the patent law pendulum towards less protection for business methods.

In Canada, the Canadian Patent Appeal Board rejected a patent application of Amazon.com Inc. for its novel "one-click" online product ordering system. In the US, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in the Bilski case has narrowed extensively the ambit of patent protection in a decision involving a commodities-hedging system.