Software can still be patented as long as certain
conditions are met
As more processes are automated, it has become increasingly
important to some businesses to be able to patent software.
In return for disclosing an invention to the public, by way of
publication of the application, patents provide a 20-year monopoly
for the patent owner.
A patent can take up to four years to be granted in the UK, and
up to seven by the European Patent Office (EPO). However, European
and UK legislation excludes computer programs "as such" from patent
protection, unlike the US.
A draft directive on the Patentability of Computer-Implemented
Inventions was introduced in February 2002 by the European
Commission (EC) to harmonise the approach of European courts to
software patentability. While small software companies have argued
that it would stifle innovation by allowing only the largest
corporations to implement software, and drive them out of business
when faced with claims of patent infringement, some large
technology groups argued that the directive was too restrictive.
and vague and confused in setting out what software can be
patented.
Proponents countered that it would allow European companies to
better compete with the US and Japan in the high tech global
market.
The directive has been passed back and forth between the
European Council and its Parliament without agreement for almost
three years.
On 6 July, the parliament voted by 649 to 14 to reject the draft
directive altogether. The EC had already made it clear that a
rejection by the parliament would signal the end of its attempts to
implement a software patent directive.
In practice, inventors need not be too alarmed. The failure of
the directive simply represents a lost chance to provide a formal
unified European approach to the patenting of computer software
across the 25 member states.
However this will not prevent the patenting of software in
Europe. The EPO has already granted more than 30,0000 software
patents.
The draft directive merely sought to codify existing practice of
national patent offices and the EPO in Munich, by allowing the
protection of computer programs which make a technical contribution
to the state of the art in the technical field concerned.
It is a common misapprehension that computer programs are not
patentable at present in Europe. The Patent Act 1977, which gives
effect to corresponding provisions of the European Patent
Convention, grants patents for an invention which is:
- Not excluded subject matter (a computer program or business
method "as such")
- Involves an inventive step
- New
- Capable of industrial application.
Although the legislation means that computer programs are not
patentable, the UK Patent Office and EPO allow the patenting of
computer programs where their application has a technical effect
which provides a "technical contribution" to the state of art.
This means that a computer program must be capable of bringing
about, when run on a computer, a further technical effect beyond
normal physical effects, and that this technical effect presents a
technical contribution to existing technology.
As far back as 1987 an application by a company called Vicom
established that a carefully-phrased patent claim can result in a
software patent.
Vicom's application concerned a mathematical process embodied in
a computer program that processed digitised images.
European patents have also been granted, for example: for a
technology for selling goods over a network using a server, client
and payment processor; an electronic shopping cart; a method of
making payments using a credit card via the internet; and the jpeg
digital image format.
Neville Cordell is a partner in the intellectual property
group at DLA Piper Rudnick Gray Cary UK
Could you patent your software?
- Consider whether any of your company's software provides a
"technical contribution" to the state of art
- Speak to the UK Patent Office, tel: 0845 9 500 505
- If you believe that your software may be patentable, seek legal
advice immediately
- Do not disclose the invention to anyone before you complete a
patent application, except on strict terms of confidence. Any
non-confidential disclosure could prevent the patent being
granted.