Setting Up Fences in Cyberspace: Internet Technologies and Business Method Patents in E-Commerce

Abstract

Even after software became patentable in some jurisdictions, the debate about the patentability of business methods still continues.The first section of this paper begins with a general introduction which provides an overview of the technological background of business patents and emergence of e-Commerce. The second section describes the various perspectives in relation to patentability of computer implemented business methods with particular emphasis to the patent law in the United States and Australia. The pitfalls of internet and e-commerce patents are reviewed in the third section. The fourth section describes the infringement of e-Commerce business method patent. Section five concludes with the significance of implementing the new regimes for e-Commerce patents.