When Congress debated and enacted Section 18 of the AIA, creating “covered business method (CBM) review,” healthcare industry patent holders took comfort in the statute’s seemingly narrow reach—to patents that “claim[] a method or corresponding apparatus for performing data processing or other operations used in the practice, administration, or management of a financial product or service. . . .” AIA § 18(d)(1); see 37 C.F.R. § 42.301(a). After three years of AIA implementation, patent holders from industry sectors outside of financial services have been affected by the USPTO’s arguably broad application of the statute. At present, the Federal Circuit has agreed with the USPTO’s broad interpretation of § 18’s scope, stating that “as a matter of statutory construction, the definition of ‘covered business method patent’ is not limited to products and services of only the financial industry, or to patents owned by or directly affecting the activities of financial institutions such as banks and brokerage houses.” Versata Dev. Grp., Inc. v. SAP Am., Inc., 2014-1194, slip op. at 35 (Fed. Cir. July 9, 2015) aff’g SAP Am., Inc. v. Versata Dev. Grp., Inc., CBM2012-00001.
