Intellectual Property Law

UK IPO changes position on software patents

The UK Intellectual Property Office (UK IPO) has announced that it has changed the way it should assess software patent applications following a recent Court of Appeal ruling.

The ruling in question was for the Astron Clinicia case (see IMPACT(R) story on the Astron Clinicia ruling). The change in practice comes at the same time as the UK IPO announced it would not be appealing that judgment (see the story about decision to not appeal, on Out-law.com).

This means that current UK IPO practice on software patent applications is now found in the following two practice notes:

• UK IPO practice note on patentable subject matter, 7 February 2008
• UK IPO practice note on patentable subject matter, 2 November 2006

To quote the most recent practice note:

"where, as a result of applying the test formulated in Aerotel/Macrossan, claims to a method performed by running a suitably programmed computer or to a computer programmed to carry out the method are allowable then, in principle, a claim to the program itself should also be allowable. However, Kitchin J made it clear that the claim to the computer program must be drawn to reflect the features of the invention which would ensure the patentability of the method which the program is intended to carry out when it is run. Where, but only where, these conditions are met, examiners will no longer object to claims to a computer program or a program on a carrier."

Full post as published by IMPACT on February 13, 2008 (boomark / email).