Relief might be in sight for retailers afraid that somebody somewhere has secured a patent covering some mundane process they regularly do in the course of selling stuff – be it the way customers swipe payment cards, their methods for collecting loyalty program data or the functioning of their Web site’s shopping cart feature, reports CBS News.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Nov. 9 heard arguments and there were indications that it might snuff out process patents altogether. Process patents, also called business method patents, have been derided as frivolous because, some critics charge, patent applications are created after the process has been routinely performed for many companies for years but the “inventor” is merely the first to try getting a patent on the process.
Seven e-tailers, including J.C. Penny, Talbots, L.L. Bean and Overstock.com, are urging the high court to clamp down on patent violation lawsuits by so-called “patent trolls,” which are often shell companies claiming rights to vague business-method patents. The retailers note they routinely settle the patent infringement claims related to their Web sites rather than spend millions on litigation.
The retailers said that the number of patents is staggering and that the Supreme Court must step in before permanent damage is done to e-tailers. “It is currently estimated that approximately 11,000 patents cover various aspects of the Internet, many, if not most, of which, are business method patents, i.e., patents that claim inventions not of specific technologies, but of vaguely worded ‘methods’ for doing something.
If the aperture is opened wider to include software patents, it is estimated that there currently are more than 200,000 such patents. In other words, literally thousands of people can claim partial invention of the Internet and thus, potentially, can file suit to claim a share of the $178 billion in annual Internet sales.”
Photo by USPTO.