Just read Top 10 (US) Patents for 2014 and spotted one that essentially covers a business process that's only really applicable outside of the US: Bank of America’s the Foreign Currency Solution (U.S. Patent No. 8818868)
Ignoring whether the subject matter is patentable, as it was granted post Alice. I'm wondering if holding a US only patent on a software implemented business method that will only ever be used outside of the US has any merit?
Per my comment to the article:
Correct me if I’m wrong but the only legal tender in the US of A is the USD, so irrespective of where you are in the US (reach of the US patent office), the only currency a device implementing the patented method will ever select, based on location, is the USD. This rather renders all the text relating to a second account / currency / processing unit…… a bit redundant, and I suspect is unlikely to be copied/implemented by a rival.
Essentially the new / novel bit of the patent will only ever come into play outside of the US, and therefore the jurisdiction of any protections offered by a US patent.
Also wondering what the legal position of offloading the account selection logic to a remote / cloud based server, outside the US would be. You could obviously circumvent the US patent, but if the service / code / implementation has never been in the US, and the phone (mobile device) at the time is not in the US, how would the Bank of America enforce an infringement claim against a US rival, offering an equivalent service to their US resident customers, while outside the US?
Oh I'm ignoring the mountain of prior art that would probably invalidate this patent, if ever challenged e.g Mondex