[Patents] following the US lead

[PILCH Hartmut phm@a2e.de]

> "Having followed the US lead in making software patentable, it is only
> a matter of time before the European patenting authorities start
> giving the nod to more broadly defined "Internet business methods",
> legal experts say. "
 
> "Mark Sanderson, of law firm Masons, said patenting of business
> methods would inevitably come to the UK because the US "sets the pace"
> in intellectual property practices. "

This kind of talk emanates from patent offices and lawcourts all the time.
The EU directive will, according to Bernhard Mueller, institute a "dynamic
notion of technicity".  The BGH (German supreme court) has already given a
patent for the principle of fixing prices based on buyer input, disguised
as "vending machine", in June 1999.  Several more recent decisions go even
further.  Patent experts in Munich hail this as "tossing the floodgates
for software and business method patents wide open".

A "dynamic notion of technicity" means a notion that adapts itself to
wherever the money flows.  It has become common amonng patent lawyers
these days to talk about the "historical background" of the current
"rigid" technicity concept and the need to broaden it and adapt it to the
times. 

-phm