Can I patent a business method or is that not something Maltese law protects?

Under the Patents and Designs Act, Chapter 417 of the Laws of Malta, a patentable invention generally needs to be new, involve an inventive step, and be susceptible of industrial application, and pure business methods, as such, are typically excluded from patent protection in Malta and across the broader European patent framework, since abstract methods of doing business, without a genuine technical character or technical solution to a technical problem, generally fall outside what patent law is designed to protect, reflecting an approach broadly consistent with the European Patent Office's treatment of similar exclusions. That said, this exclusion is narrower than it might initially seem, since if your business method is genuinely implemented through, or inseparably tied to, a specific technical innovation, such as a novel software system or technical process that goes beyond simply automating an abstract business idea, elements of that technical implementation could potentially be patentable, even though the underlying abstract business concept itself would not be. Given how nuanced and fact-specific the line between an unpatentable abstract business method and a patentable technical innovation can be, it would be worth having a patent attorney or IP lawyer properly assess exactly what aspects of your innovation, if any, might have genuine technical patentable elements, rather than assuming the whole concept is either fully protectable or entirely unprotectable.