Posted by ipeg on May 30th, 2010
The German Supreme Court (BGH) in its recent Siemens application decision[1]will give software patent critics new ammunition to oppose IPRs for software patents. The decision regarding computer-implemented inventions seems to tear down all common (German) barriers for software patents. From the critics point of view it further monopolizes software and computer products. However the decision just settles the long-lasting dispute between the European Patent Office (EPO) and the German Supreme Court about the specific conditions of patentability...
Posted by ipeg on March 5th, 2010
Negotiations about a new EU-South Korean Free Trade Agreement have taken a while, but finally parties reached an agreement. Although ambitious, nothing shocking it seems, but as soon words like “intellectual property” and “computer programs” are used in the same context – in this case what is known as “Chapter 10″ of the Trade Agreement, this is like waving a red flag to a bull. The agreement is not all that exciting to read and many provisions are merely confirmations on already existing international...
Posted by ipeg on May 24th, 2008
In Europe the heated discussion on business method patents and software patents basically died after the European Parliament rejected the controversial draft directive on the patentability of computer-implemented inventions in July 2005. This vote ended more than three years of legislative procedure and intense debate between the Member States, large companies and SMEs, various organizations and lobby groups, economists, lawyers, IT professionals and even EU institutions. For an overview of the issues which were debated in 2004-2005, many...
Posted by ipeg on October 28th, 2006
On October 27, the UK Court of Appeal handed down its judgment in two cases concerning the exclusions to patentability for business methods and computer programs under Article 52(2) and 52(3) of the EPC (s1(2) PA 1977), the first between Aerotel Ltd vs. Telco Holdings Ltd. cs. and the other in the matter of Application Neal William Macrossan.
Mr. Macrossan’s patent application claimed a patent for an automated method of producing and acquiring the documents necessary to incorporate a company, through communication between a remote...
European IP Case Law (IPPT)