WIPO on Swpat

[PILCH Hartmut <phm@a2e.de>]

Under

  WIPO: Computer Software Patents
  http://www.wipo.int/sme/en/e_commerce/computer_software.htm

you can find a few cute explanations on logic patents, mostly focussing on
the european situation.  According to this, european law "still" excludes
swpat but, as a result of intensive discussions among interested parties,
the EPO is granting them nonetheless, because they are worded in a way
that allows them to be deemed to refer to technical items such as computer
networks.  One-click shopping is given as an example of the kind of thing
that is patentable if found to be novel and non-obvious.  Indeed correctly
so.

                 Business Method and Computer Software Patents

   Today, there are an increasing number of software and business methods
   which are protected by patents in the United States
   (http://www.uspto.gov/web/menu/pbmethod/). In Japan, computer programs
   and business methods are patentable provided that they are considered
   to be technical instead of merely abstract ideas (see web site of the
   Japanese Patent Office http://www.jpo.go.jp/infoe/tt1211-055.htm).
   Under the European Patent Convention and the patent laws of a number
   of countries members of the European Patent Organisation, computer
   programs and business methods as such are still expressly excluded
   from patent protection. In practice, however, the approach has changed
   in recent years as the result of long-lasting intensive and
   controversial discussions and many decisions. The vast majority of
   applications are today considered not to claim abstract programs or
   business methods but to describe technical means like, for example,
   computer networks, for carrying out these programs or methods. In
   order to be inventive, the programs or methods have to overcome a
   technical problem in a non-obvious way; in other words, it is not the
   commercial ingenuity which makes them patentable (see EPO web site at
   http://www.european-patent-office.org/news/pressrel/2000_08_18_e.htm
   and
   http://www.european-patent-office.org/epo/pubs/oj000/7_00/7_3070.pdf
   and . In a number of other countries, computer programs and business
   methods are not yet patentable.

   Some examples of business methods are: patents on using a single click
   to order goods in an on-line transaction, on an on-line system of
   accounting, and on-line rewards incentive system. Much has been
   written about business methods patents. In most countries, patents are
   available for a wide range of inventions. In E-Commerce business, it
   is prudent to get legal advice about whether any new business methods
   developed by your company may be patentable.

   See: "Your Software and How to Protect it" (European Commission)
   ftp://ftp.cordis.lu/pub/innovation-smes/docs/brochure_ipr_software_pro
   tection_en.pdf


-- 
Hartmut Pilch, FFII & Eurolinux Alliance              tel. +49-89-12789608
Protecting Innovation against Patent Inflation       http://swpat.ffii.org/
120,000 signatures against software patents      http://www.noepatents.org/