Methods Of Doing Business; Computer Software

Methods of doing business are also unpatentable in many foreign countries. The European practice, for example, considers business methods to fall within the category of "non-technical mental acts". The restriction covers virtually any claim drafted as "A method of doing business...", "A method of advertising...", "A method of operating a warehouse...", and any other clever alternative that a competitor might devise.

Fortunately, there are often ways of circumventing the problem, usually by focusing on a physical embodiment. For example, instead of claiming "A method of marketing mortgages on the Internet" a patent attorney might well get by with claiming "A computer system that runs software that markets mortgages on the Internet".

Restrictions on granting claims directed to methods of doing business usually also include computer software. Thus, the EPO is unlikely to grant a claim directed to "A computer program comprising...." Taiwan and China are also resistant to allowing broad software claims. Here, instead of claiming software per se, a patent attorney can usually secure allowance of a claim by reciting "A machine readable medium that contains software that...." The machine readable medium counts as a "Further technical effect" needed for patentability. One can generally also secure patentability by including some specific aspect of data manipulation. A recitation that "a computer program executes operations to more efficiently store or communicate data" is considered sufficient to provide the needed "Further technical effect".