Emma Barraclough, London
The EPO's Enlarged Board has ruled that there is no conflict in the Office's case law over the patenting of computer-implemented inventions, in a decision welcomed by patent attorneys.
After reviewing a series of opinions by its Technical Boards of Appeal, the seven-member Enlarged Board concluded in a 61-page decision that there was no divergence, and that questions referred by President Alison Brimelow on the issue were therefore inadmissible.
In its ruling, the Enlarged Board compared the concept of legal development with the notion of "different decision".
"[L]egal development as such cannot on its own form the basis for a referral, only because case law in new legal and/or technical fields does not always develop in linear fashion, and earlier approaches may be abandoned or modified."
In October 2008, Brimelow formally asked the Enlarged Board to consider a set of questions concerning the patentability of...