Re: [Patents] Summary of legal arguments

[Edward Avis <epa98@doc.ic.ac.uk>]

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On Sat, 19 Jan 2002, PILCH Hartmut wrote:

[suggested reading on the legality of swpats]

>A few relevant papers on there have English versions, such as
>
>       http://swpat.ffii.org/vreji/papri/patpruef/indexen.html
>       (written by a patent examiner, very unpolemic and sharp at the
>       same time)

Too long and too Germany-centric.  Also I fear the prose may have lost
something in translation.  There are good _responses_ there to earlier
arguments, but my reader will be someone with no knowledge in this
field.

>       http://swpat.ffii.org/stidi/korcu/indexen.html

This is better but still it doesn't talk much about the practical
question of whether the EPO's software patents are valid and
enforceable.

Have there been any enforcement proceeding for software patents (as
such or otherwise) in Europe?  What was the outcome?

I may need to summarize things myself, but I'm reluctant to do that
since IANAL.  However there is no harm in quoting Article 52, the 1978
EPO guidelines and important decisions.  I am planning to use the July
1998 decision
<http://www.european-patent-office.org/dg3/pdf/t971173ep1.pdf> as the
source for the EPO's 'software not as such' reasoning.  Is there any
other decision I can quote?

The Dispositionsprogramm ruling is an example of how courts can
distinguish between computer programs and the physical world, but it has
been superseded by newer rulings and in any case applies only to
Germany.  I would be interested in British or Irish rulings on whether
software patents can be granted and whether they are enforceable.  The
UK Patent Office seems to follow what the EPO does so its decisions are
not interesting in themselves.

- -- 
Ed Avis <epa98@doc.ic.ac.uk>
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