Friday, December 19, 2008

Patent Watch

Business method patent filing goes on unabated

In October, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit struck down a business method patent application relating to commodities trading because the method was not tied to a particular machine such as a computer, and it did not involve the transformation of an “article.” Methods failing to meet either of these two criteria are not patent eligible. The decision is in the news, and likely impacts a lot of already issued business method patents. Let’s take a look, then, at a few fairly recent patents which have been classified by the Patent Office as “business method” patents and naming New England inventors.

• TopCoder Inc. of Glastonbury, Conn. won Patent No. 7,401,031 on July 15 for a method of facilitating distributed software development. A software development contest is held, the programmers (“contestants”) are rated based on their programming skills, and the winner is paid a royalty for sales of systems including the winning software. John Hughes of Hebron, Conn., is the sole inventor.

• GE Corporate Financial Services Inc. was issued Patent No. 7,454,383 on Nov. 18 for a method that assists investors in deciding whether to invest in existing non-performing loan portfolios. Tim Keyes of West Reading, Conn., is listed as an inventor.

• GE Electric Capital Corp. received Patent No. 7,440,921 on Oct. 21 for a software module which efficiently evaluates real estate transactions to determine the probability they will ultimately be approved. A rapid determination based on preliminary information from the customer is made to help the originator and reviewer avoid wasting significant time on transactions that are unlikely to be approved. Robert Rieger of Trumbull, Conn., and Thomas Lowery of Stanford, Conn., are among the listed inventors.

• For people who want to purchase products anonymously, Patent No. 7,454,356 (Nov. 18) details a method of providing completely autonomous purchasing using the existing transport infrastructure with no additional costs. Williamstown residents Richard Lerner and William Densmore Jr. are among the listed inventors in this patent for Williamstown-based Clickshare Services Corp.

• Aspen Technology Inc. of Cambridge received Patent No. 7,448,046 on Nov. 4 for an automated system that assists in real-time crude oil and petroleum product trading, refining, and logistics support. The long list of inventors in this new patent include Girish Navani of Shrewsbury, Michael Evans of Cambridge, Donald Dietrich of Wenham, Charles Moore of Hopkinton, Linus Hakimattar of Southborough, Stephen Doyle of Southborough, Kevin Maher of Sudbury, Ken Rosen of Andover, and Vladimir Mahalec of Sudbury.

• Patent No. 7,440,919 dated Oct. 21 is for extroverted financial planners. The patented method involves a financial planning competition with a third phase styled as a game show format based on financial planning concepts. Daniel Candura of Braintree is one listed inventor in this patent for Ameriprise Financial Inc. of Minneapolis.

• One substantial cost of a community water supply is the electricity required to run the pumps. Patent No. 7,435,333 (Oct. 14) discloses a method of estimating the cost associated with the energy requirements of a water distribution system. The patented method takes into account water storage levels, electrical utility rate structure and pricing information, and related considerations. Gregg Herrin of Burlington, Conn. and Benjamin Wilson of Keene, N.H., are the inventors.

• “Seasonality” is the demand for a product as a function of the time of year. See? You learn something new every column. Oracle Corp., via Patent No. 7,437,308 dated Oct. 14, invented a high tech clustering tool for seasonalities as a better way to forecast the demand for items of commerce. Mahesh Kumar of Cambridge, Peter Gaidarev of Malden, and Jonathan Woo of Brookline are the inventors.

• Patent No. 7,430,516 (Sept. 30) issued to the Hartford Fire Insurance Co. relates to a computerized method of completing insurance application forms and, more particularly, to an automated system offering the capability to quote, issue, and modify surety bonds and fidelity policies via the Internet. Bryan Blair of Hampton; Jay Burke of Glastonbury, Conn.; Jim Morelewicz of Avon, Conn.; and Bob Post of Canton, Conn. are the named inventors.

• Patent No. 7,426,488 (Sept. 16) describes a computer program for analyzing private equity investments. The New England inventors are Paul Gompers of Brookline, Joshua Lemer of South Hamilton and Leslie Ann Jeng of Cambridge.

• How many sales have been made? How much money has been generated through these sales? How well are each of our business units operating? These are the questions dealt with everyday by managers. Prior processes for dealing with these questions suffer from several inefficiencies. Patent No. 7,437,268 (Oct. 14) covers a new method for collecting and categorizing data and initiating an analysis of the collected and categorized data based on the detection of conditions associated with the collected data. The method is recursive in that the results of one analysis can provide the starting point for a subsequent analysis. Heeren Pathak of Woburn, Seth Hitchings of Arlington, Foti Barlos of Winchester, Jefferson Kommers of Somerville, and John C. Artz, Jr. of Woburn are the named inventors in this patent for Austin, Texas-based Vignette Corp.








 

Kirk Teska is an adjunct law professor at Suffolk University Law School, and is the managing partner of Iandiorio, Teska & Coleman, an intellectual property law firm in Waltham. His book “Patent Savvy for Managers” is available online and in most major bookstores. He can be reached at kirk@iandorio.com.