Analysis On Patentability Of Business Method In Finance

The patent eligibility of financial business method has been a hot topic since business methods came to be prosperity. It is a problem that both the national and international patent system has to face. The rapid development of science and technology and new business model constantly promotes the high-speed development of economy. The financial sector is the most active part of the economy, and financial business methods have a strong role in promoting economic growth in the field of innovation. However, as a particularity industry, the financial sector needs to be recognized by market and investors need to accept the supervision of relevant departments and had to disclose its substantive information to a larger extent, because it is impossible to preserve it as a commercial secret. Getting no protection of intellectual property law is bound to cause the competitors to imitate the innovator. Of course if the interests cannot be guaranteed, the enthusiasm of creation will decline, unless there is a complete mechanism to guarantee the interest of the innovator and the exclusive use of the commercial method. Once financial business methods obtain the patent protection, it guarantees the interests of the gain basis of right. It also make all the innovators devote themselves to the research of new business methods without concern, and ensure that financial activity is of high yield and low risk, otherwise the innovators can only acquire a few advantages on commercial reputation, trademark and advance in competition.There are several patent protection cases on financial business method domestically, but its essence is using various calculation or statistical measures of internal operations. It is not a substantial independent creative business method. There are few domestic cases that can be quoted. Although "method" can be patented in the revision of China Patent Law in October 2009, it has not been further defined and explained yet. So there are few categories in the application of patent law as the reference and of course cases are in short. Based on the above reasons, this paper chooses quotes and examples for reference case in the United States and regulations for the guide, even if the United States is a common law country, while our country is not, but in the field of patent, it is worth studying.The case of Alice Corporation v. CLS Bank International on June 19, 2014 in United States on the financial business method patent become a disruptive one to the precedent. This case involved issue of the invention of the computer, whether it implement the patentability of business method or not is full of uncertainty,the Supreme Court voted on 9-0 to agree to maintain the Circuit Court judgment about Alice patents’ unpatentability. In Justice Thomas’ s opinion in writing, the court held that the framework should be applicable to determine whether a patent claim subject can protect the nature, natural phenomena or abstract idea of the cases which is identified in the Mayo case(Mayo Collaborative Service v Prometheus Laboratories). Mayo’s framework asked the court to consider whether that claim is under the protection of patent law at first, and then determine whether the corresponding technical features alone or together make the nature of the content convert it to patent. In the second step of judgment, the court must have explicitly claimed that the "innovative" content of the patent is not unpatentbility.Compared with domestic legislation, it is better our country to turn to the TRIPS agreement to protect the immature development of the domestic financial industry first. And when a foreign financial enterprise is to apply for the business method patent, we would better raise the threshold of the patent examination and make the patent quantity and quality under control. For the patents lack of necessary novelty or innovative patent, we had better deny granting, so that we can temporarily prevent foreign mature financial enterprises from rapidly occupying the domestic market.Patentability does not mean grant of a patent and the risk of patent over-grant can be controlled by the substantial examination completely. Therefore, what we discussed in this article, the financial business method patent’s eligibility should not be deprived by any means and any considerations of patent over-grant should be resolved through improvement of examination. As lawyers, we should pursue the precision of legislative skills and the lawyers’ attitude, instead of excluding rudely on the basis of category.