1.   Businesses have always been free to patent their methods.

2.   But two Japanese inventors, Akira Kamakura and Hideki Tanaka, have patented a method of encouraging people to read and to reply to their junk mail.

3.   Now a Pennsylvania biotechnology company has patented a method that is expected to determine quickly which bacteria have infected a patient and which antibiotic will best kill them.

4.   Now Pil Chun, an inventor in Tewksbury, Mass., has patented a method of using acupuncture to treat baldness in men and women.

5.   Now a professor at New York University has patented a method of building customer profiles and using them to recommend products and services.

6.   PATENT SEEMS DESIGNED FOR DEBATE A professor at New York University has patented a method of building customer profiles and using them to recommend products and services.

7.   The EU committee of the American Chamber of Commerce in Belgium has urged the commission at least to permit business methods to be patented under the new law.