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IBM patent application on scheduling business meetings

By Lawrence B. Ebert, Esq.

In the flap that followed IBM's patent application on outsourcing methods (20090083107), IBM spokesman Steve Malkiewicz said Monday, 30 March 09 the application would be withdrawn because it "is contrary to our patent policy on business methods."

On May 7, 2009 , one got a look at US published application 20090119148, titled SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR ENHANCING PRODUCTIVITY, which includes claims:

Claim 1: A method including:

defining, by a user, a time template including a plurality of predefined time intervals for scheduling meetings; and
applying the time template across a collaborative system.

Claim 9: The method of claim 1, further including coordinating the time template across multiple time zones.

Yes, this is a business method patent (application) by IBM about scheduling meetings. The background states:

A significant source of wasted time is the general predisposition to using integral units of time, based on hour or half hour increments. This is especially true of business meetings, which are invariably scheduled to last an hour. Meeting attendees will fill the full hour for which the meeting is scheduled regardless of whether the entire hour is necessary to address the business at hand. The result of this is that a meeting that could have taken less than an hour will end up wasting time due to the arbitrary hour-based scheduling paradigm.

The law firm HOLLAND & KNIGHT did the application.

For a discussion of the outsourcing application:

IBM to withdraw second patent application on outsourcing

IPBiz has also discussed IBM's schizophrenic patent policy, of which the scheduling application (11/934496) is another example.

Full post as published by IPBiz on May 11, 2009 (boomark / email).