Thelen LLP Publications
As the result of this dynamic, commentators have discussed the phenomenon of business method patents being routinely issued by the PTO despite the existence of clearly anticipatory prior art. Robert P. Merges, As Many as Six Impossible Patents Before Breakfast: Property Rights for Business Concepts and Patent System Reform, 14 Berkeley Tech. L. J. 577, 589 (1999). Such commentators contend that this is partly attributed to the PTO’s searchable databases being antiquated and ill-situated to the task of reviewing these applications. Peter R. Lando, Business Method Patents: Update Post State Street, 9 Tex. Intel. Prop. L.J. 403, 404-405 (2001) (citing James Gleick, Patently Absurd, 2000, http://www.around.com/patent.html).