The motivation for this legislation actually passes the common sense test: it's absurd that there is only one company in the country allowed to process scanned checks. But a law that excuses the financial industry from business method patents is not the correct solution.
Any industry can be subject to this kind of absurd restriction. Financial services just happens to be the first industry where business method patents were invented. Some industries, like programming, are even more heavily affected.
The correct solution is to eliminate business method patents for EVERYONE.
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The comment I posted to NYTimes:
The motivation for this legislation actually passes the common sense test: it's absurd that there is only one company in the country allowed to process scanned checks. But a law that excuses the financial industry from business method patents is not the correct solution.
Any industry can be subject to this kind of absurd restriction. Financial services just happens to be the first industry where business method patents were invented. Some industries, like programming, are even more heavily affected.
The correct solution is to eliminate business method patents for EVERYONE.