BUSINESS MONDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2009 • PAGE A11

Editor: Norma Coile / 520-573-4663 / business@azstarnet.com

High court to rule on key patent case

Could set standard patent in a pivotal case that
could undermine such legal pro-
for software rights, tections for software.
business processes A ruling that sides with the
Patent Office could bar patents
on processes and methods of do-
By Joelle Tessler ing business, such as online
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS shopping techniques, medical
WASHINGTON — Today, diagnostic tests and procedures
with the technology industry for executing trades on Wall
looking on, the Supreme Court Street. And it might even under-
will explore what types of inven- cut patents on software.
tions should be eligible for a In a worst-case scenario for
the high-tech industry, the rul-
ing could invalidate many exist-
ing software patents or at least
make them more difficult to de-
fend in lawsuits. And it could
make such patents harder to ob-
tain in the future because soft-
ware is generally patented as a
process for doing something
rather than as a physical inven-
tion.
“Technology companies care
about this case because it will
define what you can and cannot
get a patent on,” said Emery Si-
mon, counselor to the Business
Software Alliance, which repre-
sents large technology compa-
nies including Microsoft Corp.
and Intel Corp. “The scope of
patentability could have ramifi-
cations for the path that tech-
nology takes.”
Tech companies say these
patents have played a critical role
in keeping the U.S. at the cutting
edge by giving people control
over their inventions for nearly
20 years.
The roots of the dispute go
back to 1997, when inventors
Bernard Bilski and Rand Warsaw
tried to patent a method of
hedging weather-related risk in
energy prices. That process,
which powers energy billing
services offered by a Pittsburgh
company called WeatherWise
USA, can be used to lock in ener-
gy prices.
The Patent Office concluded
the process was too abstract and
denied the application.
The U.S. Court of Appeals
for the Federal Circuit upheld
that decision last year and said
a process is eligible for a patent
only if it is “tied to a particular
machine or apparatus” or if it
“transforms a particular arti-
cle into a different state or
thing.”

SPOTLIGHT VISIT A RECYCLING PLANT

Latina chamber
leader focused
on attracting
buyers, growth
By Shelby Hill
FOR THE ARIZONA DAILY STAR

Lea Marquez Peterson recently be-

came the Tucson Hispanic Chamber of
Commerce’s CEO and president.
Peterson, 39, a native of Tucson, has a
background in entrepreneurship. She
graduated from the University of Ari-
zona with a degree in entrepreneurship
and received an MBA
from Pepperdine Uni-
versity.
In 1998, she and her
husband started a
chain of gas stations
that employed around
50 people. After selling
the chain, Peterson
Lea Marquez opened a business-
Peterson brokerage firm in
2003, where she
helped others buy and sell businesses.
She has been on the board of the His-
panic Chamber for five years and be-
came the interim CEO and president in
August, after the then-president
stepped down.
A Q&A with Peterson:
Q: What prompted you to take the PHOTOS BY JIM DAVIS / ARIZONA DAILY STAR
job? Waste Management workers remove unwanted items from a fast-moving conveyor belt at the company’s recycling plant on West Prince Road. For safety reasons, visi-
A: I’m always up for new, exciting op- tors won’t be able to go into this area but can watch the operations via video, among other aspects of the recycling tours.
portunities. I like the idea of leading a
group of business owners, primarily,

On trail of cans, glass, more

during tough economic times. How are
we best going to grow our businesses?
What can some of us do to recover from
this economic downturn? And I’m ex-
cited about all the possibilities.
Q: What do you hope to accom-
plish?
A: One thing that’s very evident to me
is that there are 65,000 Hispanic-owned
businesses in the state of Arizona. So, as
a Tucson Hispanic Chamber, we’re
helping Hispanic-owned businesses
grow, as well as non-Hispanic-owned
businesses reach that target population.
So, we need to grow in size. My goal is to
double the size of our chamber in the
next year. And we’re going to do that by
providing additional services that I think
as a business owner I would’ve wanted
as a chamber member and I think we can
really assist people with.
Q: How do you respond to people
who suggest the chamber has
strayed from its original intent to aid
Hispanic business owners now that
many members are not Hispanic?
A: Our primary focus is Hispanic-
owned businesses, and that’s our target.
However, you do not have to be Hispanic
to join, and our meetings are conducted
in English. ... Not all Hispanic business
owners want to do business in Spanish
or perhaps speak Spanish. That’s just a
certain particular niche within the com-
munity. ... We’re trying to reach Hispan-
ic-owned business throughout South-
ern Arizona and certainly those non-
Hispanic-owned businesses that want
to target the Hispanic population.
Q: Hispanic women are the
fastest-growing segment of business
owners nationwide. How do you in-
tend to tap into that section?
A: I don’t know. I hope Latina-owned
businesses are encouraged that I’m a fe-
male chamber president because there
certainly aren’t a lot of those ... So, I just
really want to encourage Latina-owned
businesses to get involved, also.
Shelby Hill is a University of Arizona journalism
student who is an apprentice at the Star. Contact her
at 573-4181 or at starapprentice@azstarnet.com
Waste Management
develops area to teach
about materials reuse
By Shelley Shelton
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
Every day in an industrial yard near
West Prince Road and Interstate 10, it
rains cans, newspaper and cardboard.
A huge conveyor belt moves at
about 225 feet per minute to haul tons
— 3,100 of them last month from
Tucson alone — of recycling materials
up into the air to various parts of
Waste Management’s Tucson Recy-
cling Facility.
There, 34 people along the way
pick out what can’t be recycled and
sort what’s left into chutes and onto
belts that carry the items to specific
areas and drop them into giant piles.
Plastic bottles end up with plastic
bottles. Cardboard ends up with
cardboard. Cans end up with cans.
Now school kids, Scouts and even
grown-ups can visit the facility to
learn about recycling in Tucson.
Waste Management has renovated
the administrative offices at its Tuc-
son Recycling Facility, 3909 N. Run-
way Drive, into a tour area with inter-
active activities and live video
streaming of the recycling as it hap-
pens just outside the office walls.
People on the tours won’t be able to
go through the recycling area itself for
safety reasons.
Opening the building for tours and
educational presentations is part of
Waste Management’s plan to triple by
the year 2020 the amount of recycling
it handles at the center, said Carrie
Jerry Haws, recycling site manager, maneuvers Cycler the robot, who can answer
questions via remote control.
Galvan, the company’s area director
of recycling operations.
The space is set up to handle
groups of about 10 people at a time. It
features a robot named “Cycler” who
can answer children’s recycling ques-
tions via a remote-controlled micro-
phone, a kiosk with interactive com-
puter games, a large flat-screen TV
simultaneously showing four parts of
the recycling area in action, a wall of
recycling statistics and an area where
kids can play games such as holding
certain items and figuring out
whether they can be recycled and how
long they take to break down in a
landfill.
BY THE NUMBERS
8,355
Cubic yards of landfill airspace saved
24,180
Number of trees saved
178,963
Gallons of oil saved
12,152,000
Gallons of water saved
1,798
Number of homes that could get
energy for a month from the energy
that was saved
These numbers are estimates
based on the 3,100 tons of
material from Tucson that was
recycled last month at the Waste
Management Tucson Recycling
Facility.
Don Gibson, recycling coordinator SOURCE: Waste Management
for Tucson’s environmental services
department, said recycling increases
as more children learn about it.
They go home and tell their parents
what they’ve learned, he said, and
IF YOU GO
parents begin to follow their chil- • What: All-ages tours of the
dren’s suggestions. Tucson Education Center at the
Tucson’s first neighborhood recy- Waste Management Tucson
cling centers were on Tucson Unified Recycling Facility.
School District property, Gibson said. • When: By appointment.
• Where: 3909 N. Runway Drive,
A version of this story also appeared in near West Prince Road and
Thursday’s Northwest Star. Interstate 10.
• To schedule a tour: Call
Contact reporter Shelley Shelton at 837-3718.
sshelton@azstarnet.com or 618-1921.