Research Of Subject Matter Examination Standard On Business Method Patent

The patentability of business method has always been a hot dispute in theintellectual property field. Although the United States, Japan, Europe have acceptedthe business method patent, they hold various standards and steps of examination tothe object of business method patent. The United States made a tremendousadjustment on the examination standards of objects after the case of Bilski. WhereasChina has not regulated the business method patentability via legislation and holdsconservative attitude on the authorization of business method patent. Instead, Chinaadopts strict examination of the object to control the rate of patent authorization. Inexamination practice, it’s controversial to deny patentability by the reason of“non-technical solution” stated in Article2.2of Patent Law.This paper systematically reviews the succession of object examinationstandards of business method patent in the US&EU and China’s business methodpatent examination standards. At the same time, it discusses object’s examinationmethod adaptive to China’s situation.This paper consists of three parts, i.e introduction, the main body containingthree chapters, and conclusion. The introduction describes the background, researchcontents, research methods and literature review on the research status at home andabroad. The first chapter of the main body is related to the definition of businessmethod patent. It mainly introduces and clarifies several concepts associated with business method patents confusingly, including business method, business methodpatent, computer software patent, patentable object and technical matters. The focusof this paper is “the examination standards for the object who adopts businessmethod based on computer and network technology for invention”. The secondchapter is a comparative study of the object examination of business method patentsin the United States and the European Union. This paper selects the United Statesand the European Union as the representative, focusing on the historical evolution ofthese two countries on the object examination of business method patent, details ofthe current examination standards and the specific examination procedure in thesetwo countries. The third chapter is the examination standards of business methodpatent object in our country and the improvement suggestions. Starting from theexamination standards of China and combined with specific advices of examination,it analyzes the existing problems of current examination standards and theconstraints of our examination practice. The overseas experience is also taken forreference to makes a proposal to improve the object examination of business methodpatent in China. The conclusion summarizes the point of view again, which is “Atthis stage, China can transit gradually from ‘strict object examination’ to ‘flexibleobject examination but strict conditional examination’, and grasp the points ofinnovative standards of business method patents according to the actual situation”.