Dear Colleagues,
Services are among the kinds of things that are designed.
Some services can now be patented.
A current article in the New York Times discusses aspects
of patent and intellectual property rights as they are
developing in the insurance business. While few of us are
involved in this specific field, the issues considered in this
article will interest colleagues active in service design and
process design.
Best regards,
Ken Friedman
--snip--
Protecting Ideas in the Insurance Business
June 30, 2003
By SABRA CHARTRAND
PATENTS for methods of carrying out an idea have long
generated controversy because they award exclusive
ownership to a way of doing things, not a mechanical,
electrical or chemical innovation. Patents have been
granted for methods of doing surgery, business, scientific
experiments, even cutting hair and brushing teeth.
In 1998, after hearing a legal challenge to a patent for a
way of pooling mutual fund assets, the United States Court
of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled that methods of
doing business could be patented. Since that ruling, known
as the State Street Bank decision, applications for
business-method patents have begun transforming the way
products are created and marketed.
--snip--
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/30/technology/30PATE.html?ex=1057961682&ei=1&en=7b1a25d4eaa3750e
--snip--
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