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The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit narrowed what can be patented as an abstract business method. ‘Tis good when a court ruling goes against the patent trolls. Too many online retailers have silently suffered costly legal attacks from these folks. Granting overly broad business method and software patents for obvious online features helps no-one but trolls.

Link: U.S. ruling may curb business method patents, Reuters

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Comments

  1. chackal, November 7, 2008:

    Patentable subject matter is a different test then obviousness.

    So the “obvious” requirement is off topic here.

  2. George Michie, November 7, 2008:

    Chackal,

    Can you expand on this? Section 402 of the Federal Statue governing patents is pretty clear that patents should not be granted for IP that is an “obvious” step for anyone “skilled in the art”.

    Does this not apply to method patents?

    Thanks, George

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