The proliferation of electronic commerce patents: don't blame the PTO. (Patent and Trademark Office)

Rutgers Computer & Technology Law Journal, March, 2002 by Eugene R.Quinn

I. INTRODUCTION

In the Dot Com world of today, many players are spending large sums on the acquisition of electronic commerce patents. Most of these E-commerce patents are a little bit software patent, a little bit business method patent, and likely invalid. There is indeed growing concern among commentators that the United States Patent Office (1) is issuing an ever-increasing number of invalid patents. Of course, this statement is legally incorrect because a patent once issued is presumed to be valid, (2) but the reality is that many patents that are not objectively valid are indeed emerging from prosecution and are enjoying the presumption of validity. In fact, there are many examples of business method and software patents that have been issued that likely are not...