[Patents] Re: BGH authorises computer program claims

[phm@a2e.de (PILCH Hartmut)]

You can now find a text version with pointers to discussions, in German,
at

        http://swpat.ffii.org/vreji/papri/bgh-suche01/

> > > In this context, the recent BGH decision exhibits a rather obscure
> > > assertion which might raise further debates: They say that if a
> > > teaching expressed as a computer program is deemed to be eligible as
> > > subject-matter of a patent claim, the "shaping instructions"
> > > ("praegenden Anweisungen") of the teaching as claimed must serve to
> > > solve a particular technical problem. Hence, there seems to be some
> > > kind of a backdoor through which the old well-known and since long
> > > officially abandoned "chore theory" might come in again. If there are
> > > "shaping instructions" helping to solve a "technical problem", there
> > > must also be another category of instructions not related to technical
> > > concepts. If such other instructions are found to be "shaping", no
> > > patent can be granted. It looks that now as if each patent application
> > > related to a computer-implemented invention must pass such a test.
...
> The current BGH decision is again more explicit about the necessity that
> there be a technical teaching, and it tries a serious interpretation of
> PatG 1 (= EPC 52).  It even suggests that the BPatG should reject the
> disputed claims on grounds of lack of technical teaching and that the BGH
> only wants to uphold a principle of "no discrimination against particular
> claim forms, as long as the claimed object is a direct part of the
> technical problem solution."
>
> As said before, this text is quite convoluted, and the BPatG has usually
> been very good at picking what it needs from BGH texts in order to arrive
> at a decision in its traditional "restrictive" spirit.
>
> Also, Mr. Clelland is right to ask me to refrain from personalising the
> discussion.  Although the thinking and style of this decision reminds me
> of Melullis, I am not enough of a graphologist to really identify it with
> him.  It may just as well be the collective style of the 10th senate of
> the BGH which has been formed during recent years.
>
> --
> Hartmut Pilch                                         http://phm.ffii.org/
> Protecting Innovation against Patent Inflation            
> http://swpat.ffii.org/
> 95000 signatures against software patents       http://www.noepatents.org/
>
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