Rallying the Troops for Business Methods

Wayne Sobon, associate general counsel and director of IP at global consulting giant Accenture, wasn’t satisfied being one of the 38 amici who filed briefs for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit’s hearing of the Bilski case in May?far from it. First he brainstormed with public relations advisers at Burson-Marsteller, a leading global communications firm. Then, with help from the flacks, two weeks before the en banc hearing?which has been interpreted as a signal that business method patents are in danger of being curtailed?Sobon launched a new Web site and an organization to rally defenders of such patents, neweconomypatents.org. To cap off the blitz, on the day before the Federal Circuit hearing in May, Sobon staged a Washington, D.C., press conference trumpeting the economic benefits of business method patents.

Hardly standard operating procedure for most IP lawyers. But, says Sobon, “this is a situation that just begged for an integrated communications program. It’s an issue that has serious implications for a broad array of businesses and for the American public at large, but those implications seemed lost in the public debate.”