Software created in the UK will have stronger patent protection
following a
high court ruling. The decision could be used as a precedent
and offers programmers a step up in
protecting their inventions.
It follows an appeal case brought by software licensing company,
Symbian, after a patent application was rejected by the UK
Intellectual Property Office (UK-IPO) in July 2007. The appeal
judge upheld Symbian's claim last week that the UK-IPO was wrong to
reject the application just because it was computer software.
"There have been a number of UK High Court decisions recently
which ruled that software inventions were not patentable because
they were programs for computers," said Nick Wallin, patent
attorney at Withers & Rogers, who acted for Symbian. "This does
not make sense. This ruling goes some way to help improve this
situation."
The UK
Patents Act 1977 excludes patents for innovations that are
solely computer-based programs, such as an improved word processing
program. Wallin said patenting software to make, for example, a
kitchen toaster work better was allowed, but not software that
improved how a computer worked.
Although the UK-IPO will appeal, the latest Symbian judgment is
binding until it is overtaken by another judgment from the Court of
Appeal.
Wallin said internet sites using the latest social networking
software, such as Facebook and Bebo, would have been unlikely to
have been eligible for patent protection in the UK before last
week's ruling, and it is still not straightforward.
"The time is right for a full-scale review of UK patent law in
this area and we hope that today's ruling marks the start of that
process," he said.
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