Among the eight patents Humana won this year are ones for a team fitness game, which is now a product, and one for an online health game, which isn't yet available to customers. Humana's patents for methods of predicting health, which were granted in 2010, took six years to get. The technologies are now used internally as part of services offered to customers.

Exclusive patent rights are good for 20 years from the date of application. On average, it takes the patent office about three years to make a final decision on an application, so the effective life of protection is about 17 years. After that, anyone can use the patented concepts.

Seventeen years may sound like an impressive lead time, but markets can change quickly. Even within the three-year lag while patent examiners decide, a competitive edge may die. Case in point: In 2006, Aetna launched a credit card with Bank of America that financially rewarded Aetna insurance customers when they charged health-related items, including medical treatments. The insurance company and the bank shared some customer data and called the Healthy Living card "innovative." In 2007, Aetna applied for a patent. In 2009, the companies discontinued the card because it violated then-new privacy laws, a spokesman says. In 2010, Aetna finally won the patent.

Applicants can get "expedited" examination--a decision within 12 months of filing--for a fee of $2,400 or $4,800, depending on the size of the company applying. The basic filing fee is $190 or $380.

"You have to make your best guess when filing as to how long you're going to be able to offer the product or service in question," Lanza says. "When circumstances change, companies have to step back and say, 'We guessed we were going to have a fantastic product for many years. We were wrong.'"