OK Computer?
01 July 2010
A recent ruling by the EPO on the patentability of software has done little to close the gap between EPO and UK interpretations of the law. Gwilym Roberts and Gareth Fennell explain where that leaves would-be applicants
About 40 years ago, when the founding fathers of the EPO began considering seriously the wording of a European Patent Convention, one of the questions they had to consider was what to do about patenting in the fledgling computer technology scene. At the time no one could really have understood or appreciated how computing would develop or how the patent system might cope, and trying to build a comprehensive system was probably beyond their bounds. So computer programs were lumped in as exclusions together with games, business methods and mental acts, a magnificent loophole was inserted and they presumably concluded that a few decades of technical and legal development would allow a more comprehensive answer to the problem. On May 12 2010, the Enlarged Board of Appeal, Europe's highest IP tribunal, issued an opinion that proved conclusively that the draftsmen all those years ago had been absolutely right. No one...
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