|
Last Friday, the High Court said
that the Patent Office had been incorrectly applying the law when
automatically rejecting patent claims for computer
programmes.
It now appears that if companies can show that their programmes
made a substantive inventive contribution, they may be eligible for
protection regardless of the fact that such programmes were
distributed on a computer disk.
Last year, Astron Clinica Limited (producing skin-imaging
technology that enables images of up to 2mm beneath the surface of
the skin); Software 2000 Limited (a print software company); Surf
Kitchen Inc (a business focused on delivering a superior mobile
end-user experience) and Cyan Holdings Plc (a company specialising
in semi-conductor chip design) appealed to the High Court against
the Patent Office's refusal of their patent applications.
The UK-IPO’s stance has, up until now, disproportionately
affected British industry as English companies that would normally
choose to file British patents first - because of the lower costs
and typically quicker grant periods – were being advised to file
European applications instead. However, the higher costs and less
robust grant process of the European application has been a major
hurdle for British companies wishing to protect, license and market
patented products and processes from an early stage.
Jimmy Desai at Blake Lapthorn Tarlo Lyons said: "Many companies
may have, up until now, been reluctant to file patent applications
to protect their software but this High Court decision could lead
to a stream of software-related patents".
Jimmy Desai is a partner at Blake
Lapthorn.
|