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EBoA confirms EPO approach to computer programs
,----[ Quote ]
| Today the Enlarged Board of Appeal of the
| EPO handed down its opinion on referral G
| 3/08, taking the opportunity to set out and
| confirm the approach of the EPO regarding
| the patentability of computer programs
| under the European Patent Convention (EPC).
|
| The opinion relates to four questions
| referred to the Enlarged Board in October
| 2008 by the President of the EPO concerning
| points of law of fundamental importance for
| the Office's patenting practice in this
| field.
|
| The Enlarged Board analysed in detail the
| development of relevant case law, and found
| that there was a divergence between two
| decisions of Technical Boards of Appeal.
| However, recognising that the "case law in
| new legal and/or technical fields does not
| always develop in linear fashion, and that
| earlier approaches may be abandoned or
| modified", the Enlarged Board found that
| this constituted a legitimate development
| rather than a conflict of case law.
|
| In the absence of conflicting Board of
| Appeal decisions, the Enlarged Board
| concluded that the legal requirements for a
| referral were not met. Nevertheless, the
| Board affirmed the right of the President
| of the EPO to "make full use of the
| discretion granted by Article 112(1)(b)
| EPC" in making a referral, and provided
| further guidance on how these requirements
| for such a referral should be interpreted.
`----
http://www.epo.org/topics/news/2010/20100512.html
http://documents.epo.org/projects/babylon/eponet.nsf/0/DC6171F182D8B65AC125772100426656/$File/G3_08_en.pdf
Public consultation on the review of the European Standardisation System
http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/european-standards/public-consultation/index_en.htm
Recent:
Year Ahead: Reforming Global IP Systems - Trends In A2K In 2010
,----[ Quote ]
| For the Free Software Foundation Europe and
| the Foundation for a Free Information
| Infrastructure (FFII), 2010 looks like a
| decisive year given that several
| interesting decisions will be taken on the
| patentabilty of software, business
| processes and conventional seeds. Four
| questions about computer implemented
| inventions and their patenting have been
| referred by Brimelow to the EPO Enlarged
| Board of Appeal and a decision can be
| expected soon, even if the referral itself
| is rejected.
|
| [...]
|
| The free and open source software model
| might be a better alternative to patenting
| and then ârepairingâ possible barriers to
| technology transfers, said Karsten Gerloff,
| president of the Free Software Foundation
| Europe. It might be possible to transfer
| this model to other technology areas like
| climate technology, he said. In any case,
| information technology related climate
| technology would gain through free and open
| source software.
|
| The FSFE, according to Gerloff, will follow
| closely the work by the EU Commission on
| the European Interoperability Framework
| (EIF), which consists of a set of
| interoperability guideline documents for
| European Public Services. While the first
| draft resulting from consultations in 2008
| contained solid references to open
| standards and open source software,
| according to the FSFE, these had vanished
| from a second draft leaked last September.
| Six member states filed objections against
| this second EIF draft, according to the
| FSFE.
|
| Ignoring open standards and open source
| software has a series of disadvantages,
| according to the free and open source
| software organisations, from anti-
| competitive effects against smaller
| software companies to proprietary formats
| for public content.
|
| A second focus of the FSFEâs work in 2010
| is the relationship between standards and
| patents. âIn our view, patents that are
| part of standards have to be licensed
| royalty free,â said Gerloff. While
| standardisation bodies like the World Wide
| Web Consortium or the Internet Engineering
| Task Force this worked well, in other
| organisations like the International
| Standards Organisation, reform is
| necessary, he said. âThere is a lot of work
| to do.â
`----
http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/2010/02/12/year-ahead-reforming-global-ip-systems-trends-in-a2k-in-2010/
Amicus letter of Donald E. Knuth
,----[ Quote ]
| Prof. em Donald E. Knuth, the algorithm pope, sent an Amicus Curiae letter to
| the European Patent Office in the case G03/08 and expressed his desire
| to âinnovate in peaceâ...
`----
http://arebentisch.wordpress.com/2009/05/16/amicus-letter-of-donald-e-knuth/
EU software patent issue goes to appeals body
,----[ Quote ]
| Alison Brimelow, president of the European Patent Office, has referred the
| deeply contentious question about how to assess the patentability of
| software-related inventions to her office's top appeals body, the enlarged
| board of appeal (EBoA), the EPO said late Friday.
|
| [....]
|
| In November 2006 Neal Macrossan, an Australian entrepreneur software
| developer, lost an appeal against the U.K. Patent Office's rejection of his
| patent application. He wanted patent protection for a method for producing
| documents "for use in the formation of a corporate entity using a data
| processing system."
|
| On the same day the U.K. Court of Appeal threw out a challenge against a
| patent owned by IT company Aerotel for a computer program that created a new
| network infrastructure for a group of computers.
|
| The three judges presiding over the cases considered the first a business
| method, and therefore unpatentable, while the second was seen as a patentable
| hardware change. Another U.K. judge called for a referral to the EPO's top
| appeals body to clarify the law concerning software patentability.
`----
http://www.nytimes.com/external/idg/2008/10/24/24idg-EU-software-pat.html
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