Comments on: UK Appeal Court Decision Significantly Strengthens Software Patentability http://osswatch.jiscinvolve.org/wp/2008/10/12/uk-appeal-court-decision-significantly-strengthens-software-patentability/ open source software innovation support centre Fri, 03 Feb 2012 15:30:22 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Rowan Wilson http://osswatch.jiscinvolve.org/wp/2008/10/12/uk-appeal-court-decision-significantly-strengthens-software-patentability/comment-page-1/#comment-171 Rowan Wilson Thu, 11 Dec 2008 10:09:15 +0000 http://osswatch.jiscinvolve.org/2008/10/12/uk-appeal-court-decision-significantly-strengthens-software-patentability/#comment-171 The UK IPO now has a guidance note on how it plans to behave in the light of this decision: http://www.ipo.gov.uk/pro-types/pro-patent/p-law/p-pn/p-pn-computer.htm "5. The Intellectual Property Office has previously recognised that an invention which either solves a technical problem external to the computer or solves "a technical problem within the computer" is not excluded. What Symbian has now shown is that improving the operation of a computer by solving a problem arising from the way the computer was programmed - for example, a tendency to crash due to conflicting library program calls - can also be regarded as solving "a technical problem within the computer" if it leads to a more reliable computer. Thus, a program that results in a computer running faster or more reliably may be considered to provide a technical contribution even if the invention solely addresses a problem in the programming." The UK IPO now has a guidance note on how it plans to behave in the light of this decision:

http://www.ipo.gov.uk/pro-types/pro-patent/p-law/p-pn/p-pn-computer.htm

“5. The Intellectual Property Office has previously recognised that an invention which either solves a technical problem external to the computer or solves “a technical problem within the computer” is not excluded. What Symbian has now shown is that improving the operation of a computer by solving a problem arising from the way the computer was programmed – for example, a tendency to crash due to conflicting library program calls – can also be regarded as solving “a technical problem within the computer” if it leads to a more reliable computer. Thus, a program that results in a computer running faster or more reliably may be considered to provide a technical contribution even if the invention solely addresses a problem in the programming.”

]]>