Protecting Innovative Software and Business Methods Collaboration is Key

Sometimes with a relatively intangible and complex product, such as innovative software or a new business method, it is difficult to identify precisely the inventive elements which require protection. This is where collaboration between the Patent Attorney and Inventors is particularly key.

In this discussion, we adopt the pragmatic assumption that very many software and business method developments are patentable. This holds not least before the United States Patent and Trademark Office following the State Street Bank decision, which sets out that an invention needs to provide a useful, concrete and tangible result. This has been described by some US Attorneys as simply requiring that the invention provides "a competitive advantage". Moreover, grant of such patents in other jurisdictions and in particular, the European Patent Office often goes unheeded sitting as it tends to do in the shadow of the misconception that software inventions are not patentable. The following