A live 90-minute telephone conference by Stafford CLE Teleconferences on how Lundgren and new PTO exam guidelines will change the landscape for business method patents will take place on January 18, 2006.
After years of rejection, a business method lacking a technological arts component was recently recognized as patentable by the Board of Patent Appeals & Interferences in Ex parte Lundgren.
Since the Federal Circuit decided State Street Bank & Trust v. Signature Fin. Group, business method patent applications have skyrocketed. Lundgren and the Patent Office's new examination guidelines since that decision have fundamentally changed the landscape for such patents.
But the Supreme Court may turn everything upside down.
Within a month after Lundgren, the Court granted cert. in Laboratory Corp. of America Holdings v. Metabolite Labs, in which the Federal Circuit rejected a method patent lacking a technological arts component.
As these patents increase, so does scrutiny of them. Corporate legal advisors must understand the business method patent and how it fits in the company's IP strategy and planning.
The panel will address key questions such as:
- What is the current state of the law regarding the patentability of business methods -- with and without technological arts components?
- What factors, including recent events, must counsel consider in assessing the patentability of business methods?
- What are the best legal strategies for corporate IP owners to effectively protect their business methods?
- Where does the current crop of business method litigation stand? And, what is the status of the Supreme Court's review of Metabolife?
Register here.
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