Powerful Tool Against Method Patents Little Used in 2017

• Covered business method challenges tracked at less than two per month at year’s end • Most popular challenge, inter partes review, grew 4.9 percent in 2017

Specialized challenges at the patent office to the validity of business method patents, often covering financial or e-commerce related tasks, decreased to a trickle in 2017.

Alleged infringers filed only 34 covered business method petitions at the Patent and Trademark Office last year, down from 91 in 2016, Bloomberg Law data show. Only 10 CBM petitions were filed in the last six months of 2017, suggesting next year’s volume could be even lower. ...