[Patents] simple questions

[Steve Probert steve.probert@patent.gov.uk]

>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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