Software Patent News for February 5th:
- The History of Software Patents [IPWatchdog.com] –
Eugene Quinn: "this is the first in a series of articles that will explore the history of software patents and how we have gotten to the point where we are today." - The BPAI and the Machine or Transformation test of Bilski [Patently-O] –
"In three recent cases, the BPAI has continued its trend of applying the Federal Circuit's en banc Bilski decision to reject software-style method claims as lacking patentable subject matter. The BPAI is not asserting that software is unpatentable — the Board is simply failing to find ties to a particular machine; transformation of a physical object; or transformation of articles "representative of physical objects."" - EPO Enlarged Board of Appeal to Clarify Software Patentability [DWW] –
"The President of the European Patent Office (EPO) has referred several questions of law to the EPO’s Enlarged Board of Appeal (EBoA) in an attempt to clarify the patentability of software-based inventions. The European Patent Convention excludes software “as such” from patentability, but EPO Technical Boards of Appeal (TBAs) have often allowed patents for inventions where the inventive step is entirely performed by software, as long as the invention has “technical character”. However, there have been inconsistent interpretations of what this means."