Software patents under scrutiny in Europe
01 November 2008
The EPO's Enlarged Board of Appeal is set to give a definitive ruling on the patentability of computer programs in Europe
James Nurton and Stephen Mulrenan, London
The Enlarged Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office is set to give a definitive ruling on the patentability of computer programs in Europe, after EPO President Alison Brimelow last month asked it to address four questions.
Brimelow's move is the latest development in the controversy over software patents in Europe, and came just two weeks after the England and Wales Court of Appeal upheld the validity of a patent owned by telecoms company Symbian, ruling that software can be patented if it provides a technical contribution to the state of the art. That decision was seen as bringing UK practice closer to that of the EPO. Meanwhile, a decision on patentable subject matter from the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in the Bilski case was expected imminently as Managing IP went to press.
In her letter to Peter Messerli,...
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