Edward Pool, 45, announced recently that the US Patent and Trademark Office had issued a preliminary “notice of allowance” for a patent application his company submitted describing “a process for carrying out an international transaction… using computer-to-computer communications.”
Reports suggest that the US Patent and Trademark Office has since indicated that the patent application is likely to be approved, unless it can now be shown that someone else had invented the process first. The application has undergone three years’ examination.
60% of applications for business method patents are granted in the US, according to the US PTO.
Pool commissioned software in 1992 to help with logistical problems for his business of the time of importing goods from Russia to the US. He calls the system Borderless Order Entry System (BOES). It helps businesses that import and export goods over the internet, calculating taxes, duties and exchange rates and generating purchase orders, invoices and bills of lading. Pool and his lawyers argue that the patent will entitle his company to licence fees on every trade deal across borders. His company, DE Technologies LLC, is hoping to collect a 0.3% fee on each computerised cross-border transaction. It estimates the global trade market at over $5 trillion.
The patent will not have effect outside the US, although it is likely that, if the US patent is granted, Pool will try to secure patents in other jurisdictions that take a liberal approach to patenting (i.e. those that allow business method patents). At present, this excludes the European Union. However, it is feasible that if the US patent succeeds, Pool could argue infringement by a European company that exports to or imports from the US, depending on the circumstances.
In an interview, Pool said of the software his company had commissioned: “This may not be rocket science in the year 2000, but try eight years ago.”