Software and Patents in Europe

The computer program exclusion from Article 52 of the European PatentConvention EPC proved impossible to uphold as industry moved over to digitaltechnology and ... » 

The computer program exclusion from Article 52 of the European PatentConvention EPC proved impossible to uphold as industry moved over to digitaltechnology and the Boards of Appeal of the European Patent Organisation EPOfelt emboldened to circumvent the EPC in Vicom by creating the legal fiction oftechnical effect. This engineers solution emphasised that protectionshould be available for a device a situation which has led to software andbusiness methods being protected throughout Europe when the form ofapplication rather than the substance is acceptable. Since the Article 52exclusion has effectively vanished it is timely to reconsider what makesexamination of software invention difficult and what leads to such energeticopposition to protecting inventive activity in the software field. Leithadvocates a more programmingcentric approach which recognises that softwareexamination requires different strategies from that of other technical fields. «