House prohibits tax-planning patents.

The House of Representatives recently voted 220-175 to overhaul patent rules and place a ban on tax-planning method patents.

H.R. 1908, the Patent Reform Act of 2007, contained a provision that would protect accounting firms from lawsuits over tax-planning methods.

The bill defines "tax-planning method" as a plan, strategy, technique or scheme designed to reduce, minimize or defer a taxpayer's tax liability. However, the bill did not include the use of tax preparation software or other tools used "to perform or model mathematical calculations or prepare tax or information returns."

Read more at http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?dl10:h.r.01908:.