A hearing officer of the UK Intellectual Property Office has held that an invention which made financial trading possible by mobile phone, that included an interface and a simplified syntax for trading information was not patentable, because the novelty and inventive step related solely to a computer program.
The decision is in line with the EPO approach regarding patentability.
Case: BL O/170/08, 19 June 2008.
The Israel Patent Office decision in Melnicke vs. Giraffa is in the same vein. The requirements for patentability of software inventions are still cloudy, but software per se. seems to be out, as is business methods implemented by software.
Even before these actions in the UK, I’ve been convinced that it’s time to eliminate the software patent process, and simply use the existing copyright and trademark protection for software. See my article on blog.startupprofessionals.com titled “Software Patents: Time for a Change” for specifics.
Marty Zwilling, Founder & CEO, Startup Professionals, Inc.