Curbs on business-method claims would be a dramatic about-face, because it was the Federal Circuit itself that introduced such patents with its 1998 decision in the so-called State Street Bank case, approving a patent on a way of pooling mutual-fund assets.(Text 2. 2010. 英一)
对商业方法专利申请的限制也许是一次戏剧性的彻底转变,因为正是联邦巡回法院自己在1998年被称为“道富银行案”的裁决中引入了此类专利,批准了一项共同基金资产筹集方法的专利。