Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/09pdf/08-964.pdf
Page Number: 64

44 

BILSKI v. KAPPOS 

STEVENS, J., concurring in judgment 

that  “[p]henomena  of  nature  . . .  ,  mental  processes,  and 
abstract  intellectual  concepts  are  not  patentable,  as  they 
are  the  basic  tools  of  scientific  and  technological  work,”
409 U.  S., at 67; see also, Joseph E. Seagram & Sons, Inc., 
180  F. 2d,  at  28  (“To  give  appellant  a  monopoly,  through
the issuance of a patent, upon so great an area . . . would 
in  our  view  impose  without  warrant  of  law  a  serious  re-
straint upon the advance of science and industry”).  Busi-
ness  methods  are  similarly  often  closer  to  “big  ideas,”  as
they  are  the  basic  tools  of  commercial  work.   They  are
also,  in  many  cases,  the  basic  tools  of  further  business
innovation:  Innovation  in  business  methods  is  often  a 
sequential and complementary process in which imitation 
may be a “spur to innovation” and patents may “become an 
impediment.”  Bessen  &  Maskin,  Sequential  Innovation,
Patents,  and  Imitation,  40  RAND  J.  Econ.  611,  613 
(2009).54    “Think  how  the  airline  industry  might  now  be
structured if the first company to offer frequent flyer miles
had enjoyed the sole right to award them.”  Dreyfuss 264.
“[I]mitation  and  refinement  through  imitation  are  both
necessary  to  invention  itself  and  the  very  lifeblood  of  a 
competitive economy.”  Bonito Boats, 489 U. S., at 146. 

If business methods could be patented, then many busi-
ness  decisions,  no  matter  how  small,  could  be  potential
patent violations.  Businesses would either live in constant 
fear  of  litigation  or  would  need  to  undertake  the  costs  of 
searching through patents that describe methods of doing
business, attempting to decide whether their innovation is 
one  that  remains  in  the  public  domain.    See  Long,  Infor-
mation Costs in Patent and Copyright, 90 Va. L. Rev. 465, 

—————— 

Patent Scope, 90 Colum. L. Rev. 839, 873–878 (1990). 

54 See  also  Raskind,  The  State  Street  Bank  Decision,  The  Bad  Busi-
ness of Unlimited Patent Protection for Methods of Doing Business, 10
Fordham  Intell.  Prop.  Media  &  Ent.  L. J.  61,  102  (1999)  (“Interactive 
emulation more than innovation is the driving force of business method
changes”).