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Article: A dose of patent medicine. (banks and other financial firms are seeking patents to protect their software programs)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- February 10, 1996
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1996 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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RELENTLESS innovation has long been a hallmark of the modern finance industry. Not only banks and insurance companies, but software boutiques, too, are always devising clever new ways to do everything from calculating your bank balance to pricing options. Irritatingly for innovators, a new idea does not give them an edge over their rivals for long. Almost as soon as a new product appears, competitors copy it.
Recently, however, some financial inventors seem to have become keener to protect their intellectual property. In the United States 268 financial- software patents (ie, ones based on computer code) have been granted in the past decade, compared with a total of ...