• March 2, 2001. Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. Fact Sheet (.pdf format) for the "Information-Technology Expert-Level Meeting Under the Enhanced Initiative on Deregulation and Competition Policy", Tokyo, Japan. This meeting between "United States and Japanese government officials" focused on "U.S. proposals to promote a more information-technology (IT) friendly regulatory environment in Japan." According to the fact sheet,

  "The United States urged the Japanese Government to take a number of measures in this area, including ... clarifying its laws to ensure that the personal use exception for copying is not abused in the digital environment; and protecting business method patents."

• October 24, 2000. Memorandum of Understanding on Issues Related to the Protection of Intellectual Property Rights Under the Agreement Between the United States and Jordan on the Establishment of a Free Trade Area. The MoU contains the following provision:

  "5. Jordan shall take all steps necessary to clarify that the exclusion from patent protection of 'mathematical methods' in Article 4(B) of Jordan's Patent Law does not include such 'methods' as business methods or computer-related inventions."

• October 3, 2000. Proposed Business Method Patent Improvement Act of 2000
  • Text (.pdf format) and Summary of the proposed Act.
  • Floor Statement by Rep. Boucher on the Business Method Patent Improvement Act.
  • Floor Statement and Press Release of Rep. Berman regarding the introduction of the Business Method Patent Improvement Act.

  Articles about the Business Method Patent Improvement Act
  

  • October 3, 2000. Kathleen Ellis. Net Patent Bill Introduced. Wired News.
  • October 2000. Stephen R. Buckingham and Stuart D.Sender. Proposed Business Method Patent Improvement Act- The Battle Begins. Lowenstein Sandler PC.

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (US PTO) Policy

• July 19, 2000. U.S. PTO's White Paper on Automated Financial or Management Data Processing Methods (Business Methods).
• June 29, 2000. Announcement of the US PTO's Roundtable Meeting on Computer Implemented Business Method Patent Initiatives.
  
• March 29, 2000. The U.S. PTO's Business Methods Patent Initiative: An Action Plan.
• 1994. U.S. PTO Public Hearings on Software Patents.

• EU Rejects Software Patents
  • July 6, 2005. Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure press release. Parliament says No to Software Patents.
  • July 6, 2005. Free Software Foundation Europe press release. No software patents in Europe, requests EPO review instrument.
  • July 6, 2005. BBC. Software patent bill thrown out.

• March 12, 2001. Should Patents be Granted for Computer Software or Ways of Doing Business? The Government's Conclusions. (also see related press release). These conclusions are the result of a Nov. 1, 2000 public consultation initiated by the UK Patent Office.
• November 20-29, 2000 European Patent Convention revision conference meeting scheduled. Discussions may include attempts to end current EPO exemption on business methods patents.
• September 8, 2000. European Patent Office Decision denying the patentability of an "Improved Pension Benefit System."

  "The reason for the refusal was that the application related to a method for doing business, lacking any technical character and thus being excluded from patentability under Article 52(2) and (3) EPC."

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