In fact, business methods were rarely protected at all. Today business methods are often implemented in software. However, a landmark case regarding software and business methods was decided this summer by the Federal Circuit. The State Street case concerned a patent for a computerized accounting system used to manage a mutual fund investment structure in which multiple mutual funds were allowed to pool their monies into a single portfolio, organized as a partnership. Without reversing a single case, State Street managed to reverse several decades of practice in patent law.
Business methods are now patentable, and business methods in software are, too.
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