Development and Strategies of E-commerce Patents

Internet and information technologies break the transaction barriers, and the permission of the patentable subject matter for business methods and software acts as the moving power for enterprises entering into the knowledge competition age. Computer software can be a patentable subject matter is the inevitable consequence of the development of technology and law, while the patentability of business methods reflects that the advantages of industry competitiveness have shifted from labor to knowledge and innovation. This study analyzes the quantity and trends of e-commerce related patents, and clarify the concepts of patentable subject matter regarding business methods. Since United States is the leading country in the e-commerce and the patent system, decisions and patent statistics of United States are considered as the references in this study. In addition, a set of innovation and patent strategies for enterprises is also proposed to deal with the patent barriers established by technology leaders