State Street Bank v. Signature Financial Group

Citation: State Street Bank & Trust v. Signature Financial Group, 149 F.3d 1368 (Fed. Cir. 1998), ''cert. denied,'' 525 U.S. 1093 (1999).

The Federal Circuit ruled that business methods can be patented. The court held, “[s]ince the 1952 Patent Act, business methods have been, and should have been, subject to the same legal requirements for patentability as applied to any other process or method.” Whatever the status of business method patents prior to 1998, State Street clearly sanctioned their use prospectively.