Chapter 3: Patents and the Business Revolution

The following sections are included:

• Introduction

• The Debate over Business Method Inventions

  • Business Method Inventions

  • An Economic Definition of Business Method Inventions

  • The USPTO’s Definition of Business Method Inventions

  • Guidance from the Patent Act in Defining Business Method Inventions

  • The Courts’ Movement toward a Definition of Business Method Inventions

• Limiting the Patentability of Business Method Inventions Would Constrain the Commercialization of Inventions and Entrepreneurship

  • Business Method Inventions and the Commercialization of Scientific and Technological Discoveries

  • Business Method Inventions and Entrepreneurship

• Efficiency Arguments in Favor of Patenting Business Method Inventions and Response to the Critics

  • Patenting of Business Method Inventions Promotes Dynamic Efficiency in the Market for Discoveries

  • Patenting of Business Method Inventions Promotes Allocative Efficiency in the Market for Discoveries

  • Patenting of Business Method Inventions Promotes Transaction Efficiency in the Market for Discoveries

  • Addressing Legal and Administrative Efficiency: Business Method Patents are not Intrinsically Vague or Abstract

• Business Method Inventions and the Business Revolution

  • The Industrial Revolution: Machines and Transformation

  • The Business Revolution and Transactions

  • Business Method Inventions and New Transaction Techniques

• Conclusion