Business Method Patents (BMP)
1.    Relation to algorithms: Both vulnerable to mental steps doctrine. Both rely on computers to overcome this problem.
2.    State Street: Federal circuit takes away exception for BMP, extending protection to them.
3.    Sometimes bogus (one-click) sometimes useful (perhaps anti-theft system of charging $X.99 for all goods).
4.    Special law: If you are accused of infringing, you can defend by showing you have been running business with this method more than one year before the other guy files.
a.    If 10 years ago you came up with a new business method it couldn’t be patented originally so you may have hid it as a trade secret. If you did that and law changes, now you’re in situation where you were first but originally couldn’t patent, keeping it secret won’t stop anyone else from patenting under prior art rules. That’s why this is useful.
b.    But they screwed up the language, so it didn’t come out as they intended
c.    Congress put us back into the problem area of not wanting special rules from BMP and other patents because it can be difficult to define what a BMP is.