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Canada Rejects Business Method Patents

Posted by timothy on from the as-ought-we-all dept.

"Canadian Patent Appeal Board Rules Against Business Method Patents," says a new post from Michael Geist; Lorien_the_first_one writes "Looks like the US courts could face some peer pressure," and supplies this excerpt: "[T]he panel delivered very strong language rejecting the mere possibility of business method patents under Canadian law. The panel noted that 'since patenting business methods would involve a radical departure from the traditional patent regime, and since the patentability of such methods is a highly contentious matter, clear and unequivocal legislation is required for business methods to be patentable.' ... In applying that analysis to the Amazon.com one-click patent, the panel concluded that 'concepts or rules for the more efficient conduct of online ordering, are methods of doing business. Even if these concepts or rules are novel, ingenious and useful, they are still unpatentable because they are business methods.'"

8 of 68 comments (clear)

  1. Not a win yet. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Remember folks, the very pro-business conservative government is in power right now so they could introduce legislation to allow business method patents at any time. All it will take is the right amount of money greasing the right palms.

    1. Re:Not a win yet. by MicktheMech · · Score: 5, Insightful

      No, but they can play confidence-motion-chicken with it to push it through. Despite the interest among the slashdot crowd intellectual property is not a very sexy election issue for most of the electorate.

    2. Re:Not a win yet. by k10quaint · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Business method patents are anti-business, pro-lawyer.

    3. Re:Not a win yet. by hubert.lepicki · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Well yes, pro-business government is in power in Canada. But as far as I can tell, patenting business methods is anti-business and anti-competition, so current government shouldn't allow them if they really are what you say they are.

  2. Yay lobbyists by Titoxd · · Score: 2, Insightful

    clear and unequivocal legislation is required for business methods to be patentable

    Since when has that stopped anyone? :(

  3. Re:Oh Canada! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    When has the US ever decided to follow suit?

    Metric system?
    Foreign Policies?

    I'll just wait till next week when the US puts Canada on some anti-capitialist watchlist for not adopting their patent laws, much like they did with the copyright/DMCA laws.

  4. Canada: more sanity than greed. by aaandre · · Score: 2, Insightful

    And yes, I am considering moving there, thanks for asking.

    1. Re:Canada: more sanity than greed. by Clover_Kicker · · Score: 2, Insightful

      And an umbrella. A really, really big umbrella.