Sterne Kessler has deep experience with business method and software patents. We have handled patent preparation, prosecution and reexamination for a number of well‐known financial services and software companies. Our team can help you navigate the challenges associated with §101 in this "post-Alice" patent world.
We work with all types of companies — from emerging to Fortune 500 — to protect their valuable business methods. Often a company's biggest asset is its proprietary method of doing business. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office grants patents to provide protection for these business methods, so that you can exclude your competitors from doing business in the same way. Business method claims can be patented in the United States, but proper drafting and reciting details on practical implementation is important.
Sterne Kessler has deep experience with business method and software patents. We have handled patent preparation, prosecution and reexamination for a number of well‐known financial services and software companies. For instance, since 2005 alone we have developed over 125 software and business method applications for a Fortune 100 financial institution, and more than 500 software and business method applications for a Fortune 100 technology company.
Sterne Kessler is a recognized industry thought leader with regards to business methods and software, and has led or been involved with the seminal developments and cases related to business methods since the beginning of the dot-com era. In 1995, Sterne Kessler represented the applicant in In re Beauregard, the Federal Circuit case that led to the USPTO developing the 1996 guidelines for statutory subject matter related to patenting software. More recently, Sterne Kessler was actively involved in the Bilski amicus effort at both the Federal Circuit and Supreme Court levels. Most recently, we were directly involved in Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank International — having prepared and prosecuted the patents in question.