Chapter 16. Emerging Patent Trends

The newest trends in patents are the emergence of patents for methods of doing business and the use of patents in the biotechnology field. Patents are now available for methods of doing business, leading to a 700 percent increase in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) filings for software and business method patent applications. Because many of these patents have yet to be tested in court, a wave of litigation is expected as courts attempt to determine whether such patents are enforceable.

Patents in the biotech field involve serious considerations of the need to reward private inventors as well as the need of society to ensure that important inventions such as those for the production of food and the cure ...

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