Patentometric analysis of finance patents filed in the USPTO.

Abstract

By using the US patent data, this dissertation studies the recent surge in finance patents. Until recently, patenting of financial innovations was considered impossible as the financial innovations were treated as business methods and this changed in 1998, when the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit's (CAFC) decision on the State Street Bank & Trust Co. versus Signature Financial Group case removed the judicially created "business method" exception. The profound changes in the patentability of financial innovations may address the concerns on the rapid imitations of financial innovation and the recent surge in patent infringement litigations create a fear that it could upset the natural ecosystem of financial services industry, which had evolved without a strong intellectual property regime.