From steve.probert@patent.gov.uk  Fri Oct 13 13:01:02 2000
Date: Fri, 13 Oct 2000 14:01:02 +0100
From: Steve Probert steve.probert@patent.gov.uk
Subject: [Patents] simple questions

>Hi!
>I wish you have some minutes and tell us in what "circumstances" is soft
>patentable or not. 

According to the Courts in the UK (and the Boards of Appeal of the EPO), computer programs that are capable of producing a technical effect when run on a computer are patentable.  They are not regarded as computer programs as such.  They are more than just a computer program.  They are technical inventions that just happen to be implemented using a computer program.  In almost every such case, alternative means might have been used to implement the invention, and the Courts have taken the view that it is the invention that must be considered, not the means by which the applicant has suggested that it might be implemented.

>Sorry, I would like to ask you here about something you wrote in other
>e-mail. -What is your opinion about patenting methods of doing business?

I have no opinion about whether or not methods of doing business should be patentable.  There are very good reasons on both sides.  All I want to ensure is that if the system is changed, it is changed following full consultation/debate, and in the knowledge of the consequences.

>-Do you mean patenting something like "leasing","factoring" or
>"franchised shops"?
>-Why not patenting  contracts or stipulations "as such"?
>-An old business method would be newer enough for you (and thus
>patentable) just because is made thanks of Internet?

A method of doing business is a bit like an elephant - Not very easy to describe in writing, but we all know one when we see one.  For example, methods of raising taxes, buying and selling shares, running an auction, managing a pension fund, hotel management etc. are all typically methods of doing business.   In the UK, a method of doing business is a method of doing business however it is done.  Using the Internet (or any other technical equipment) will not make it patentable.  So whether it is an old business method or a new one makes no difference - it is an excluded item.

Hope this helps.

Steve Probert
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