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ARTICLE · 14 FEBRUARY 2017

Keeping Up With Software Patents: What Cyber Executives Need To Know

Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner LLP
Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner LLP
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Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner LLP

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Some cybersecurity companies have doubts about whether their software-based inventions are patentable under U.S. law. Some of these doubts are reasonable, but many are not.

United StatesIntellectual Property
Elliot C. Cook
Elliot C. Cook
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Some cybersecurity companies have doubts about whether their software-based inventions are patentable under U.S. law. Some of these doubts are reasonable, but many are not. Before you decide whether to protect your company's cybersecurity innovations with patents—or leave them freely available for competitors to copy—you need to understand what is patentable.

Fortunately, there are now many data points to inform your decision. In 2016, the U.S. appellate court primarily responsible for shaping patent law issued more than 20 decisions addressing what types of inventions are patent-eligible. Examples of software inventions that were analyzed by that court in 2016 include:

Inventions Found Patent-Eligible

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