Can Software and Business Methods be Patented?

Hi, I'm Rich Beem. I'm a patent attorney in Chicago and one question that I often get is “Is software patentable?” And the answer is yes. If the software is new, if it has utility, if it's not obvious in view of someone else's software – those are standards that apply to all inventions: new, non-obvious, and useful – then software is patentable. And the way to patent software is to file a patent application. We usually include a flowchart that explains what the software is doing and what the steps are that the software follows, and we try to tie it in with the computer system. If there's any hardware that's involved in it, how do things go to the memory, how do things go to the processor. So yes, software is patentable. And a related question is “are business methods patentable?” And the answer is yes, they are. Again, based on the same standards. Now it helps a lot if the business method is technical and, particularly, it often relates to the software. One of the things that we have patented in the way of software is technology for handling medical records, handling databases, determining what the patient's name is. Is it the same person? Is John Doe the same person as John A. Doe and is that the same person as Jonathan A. Doe? There are statistical methods that can be used that match up Social Security numbers and other kinds of things that we do for one of our patents that we've been very successful at obtaining patents for. Now, we can't guarantee that your software patent will issue. It depends on the nature of your invention to talk about whether your software patent, software invention might be patentable. Call us at 312-201-0011. I'm Rich Beem. Thank you.