Business method patent issuance has plummeted since Alice | Managing Intellectual Property:
Trends in Business method patents has seriously dropped since the Supreme Court ruled on the Alice v CLS Bank case in June. The court ruled that an abstract idea is not necessarily a business method and saying that it will be done on computers (network/cloud) doesn’t assure it to be a valid claim either.
This ruling knocks back business method (and software patents).
So the major drop in business method patents could well be attributed to this case. The charts are rather telling but looking at a few more moths in 2015 should really crystallize the picture.
This should also setback those questionable entities that camp out under the economic freeway, with a bundle of patents, and charge everyone coming and going a toll.