Financial Services and Business Systems

Understanding the law, science, and technology

Post Bilski, innovations in e-commerce, financial services, and medical methods continue to develop and thrive. Finnegan advises companies on strategies consistent with the Supreme Court’s directives in Bilski, Mayo, and Alice. As the lower courts apply the Court’s rulings, Finnegan is there, representing patent owners in cases before the Federal Circuit involving the patent eligibility of innovations in financial services and software. For example, we successfully represented Research Corporation Technologies before the Federal Circuit, where the court reversed summary judgment of invalidity of claims directed to methods for half-toning digital images, explaining that only “manifestly abstract” inventions are patent-ineligible.

Finnegan has played a role in some of the seminal court cases involving the scope of patent protection. In 1980, we wrote an amicus brief to the Supreme Court in Diamond v. Chakrabarty on the patentability of a living organism. We also drafted the application in In re Lowry and prosecuted the case through the USPTO. That case established the patentability of claims to a machine-readable data structure in a computer. In the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, we represented one of the parties in AT&T Corp. v. Excel Communications, Inc., which addressed the patentability of a method of determining telephone charges. We also filed an amicus brief in the Federal Circuit in In re Beauregard, which concerned claims to a computer program embodied in a tangible media, such as a floppy disk. On the issue of patent-eligible subject matter, we filed amicus briefs in the Supreme Court in Mayo v. Prometheus and in the Federal Circuit in ACLU v. Myriad. With our historical insight and sharp focus on the everchanging patent eligibility landscape, we work with clients across a broad range of technologies, including those related to:

• Blockchain
• Cryptocurrency
• Digital health
• Digital or virtual currency
• E-Billing
• Financial software
• Mobile banking
• Payment processing
• Telemedicine

We help with:

• Litigating high-value products in district and appellate courts and government agencies
• Protecting against infringement through litigation or other dispute resolution options
• Developing and executing patent prosecution strategies
• Writing opinions and providing ongoing counseling for new and evolving products
• Developing licensing programs
• Conducting due diligence investigations
• Developing portfolio management strategies
• Identifying protected geographical indication and protected designation of origin marks
• Obtaining registered design protection
• Providing trademark and advertising protection and counseling