What Bilski Means To High-Tech Companies

While we all wait with bated breath for the decision of the Supreme Court in Bilski v. Kappos, I had a chance to ponder the impact this decision could have on LogLogic and other private technology start-ups.

If the Supremes decide that the Bilski “invention” is in fact patentable subject matter, as in-house counsel for an innovative technology company, I am going to be forced to spend a lot more of my time filing new patents.

Why? LogLogic is an innovative, start-up company and we can’t afford to let another company patent our business processes. Rather than just looking at getting patents for our core technology, I would then need to think about getting patents for all our businesses processes – how we handle RMA’s, how we handle technical support calls, etc.

While I won’t mind spending more time on patents, as a shareholder in LogLogic, I wonder if that is the best use of LogLogic’s engineers, product management, etc. time. I would rather that they spend their precious hours in the day innovating and creating the next generation of log management products and services or providing support and services to our loyal customers.

Yes, patents are important and our engineers at LogLogic should spend some time on patent applications. But if the Supreme Court widens the scope of patentable material to the extent that the Mr. Bilski and Mr. Warsaw ask, then we will need to think about protecting with a patent all of our business processes, lest someone else patent the process ahead of us.

What’s interesting is that most of the developed world does not offer patent protection for businesses processes. My question would be whether it would be better for US competitiveness to have such extensive patent protection?

I think not. Such extensive patent protection would inevitably lead to more legal wrangling. More discussions with patent trolls, er patent licensing firms and more payments of licensing fees. I would rather we spend our time innovating and competing globally, rather than rushing to the patent office every time we come up with a new business process.