The IPKat reports on a recent seminar about types of invention which the law (UK & EU) states to be not patentable. The most controversial of these is of course software.
The IPKat's report makes for interesting reading, although the items discussed are very in-depth and hence is probably most useful for patent agents and IT lawyers. One point of particular interest to practitioners will be the rise in, and outcome of, excluded matter hearings:
"The number of excluded matter hearings at the UK Office had increased substantially over the past few years, rising from less than 10 a few years ago to nearly 50 last year. Unsurprisingly, the vast majority (87.5%) of recent hearings under the Aerotel/Macrossan test resulted in refusal, with the largest proportion of refusals being on the grounds of the claimed invention being a computer program as such."
Low quality software patents, granted but of dubious validity, are one of the main propaganda tools available to the anti software patent lobby. If patent offices are being increasingly rejecting these types of patent applications (a conclusion which cannot be completely drawn from the above statistic - more research is needed), perhaps in the future there can be a less emotive, and more productive, discussion on software patents than the one we've seen in recent years.
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