Business method patent is a patent that protects an invention that is or facilitates a method of doing business, have been of particular interest to Internet firms. Patents for these purposes were not allowed in the United States until 1998, when a federal circuit court issued an opinion allowing a patent for a business method, holding that business methods, mathematical algorithms, and software are patentable as long as they produce useful, tangible, and concrete results. This ruling opened a Pandora’s Box and has caused many firms to scramble to try to patents their business methods.
Definition