Patenting computer-implemented inventions (Software Patents)

The law does not allow patents to be granted for some types of innovation. Some computer-implemented inventions are patentable whilst others are not. This is because software straddles the technological and business worlds. It uses technology, that is, computers, but often for non-technical purposes. Whether a computer-implemented invention is patentable depends on the contribution the invention makes. For example, if it provides improved control of a car braking system, it is likely to be patentable, but if it merely provides an improved accounting system, it is probably not patentable.

There is extensive case law about computer-implemented inventions. We are bound by these cases in its own decision making. The most recent statement of our practice follows two High Court cases in 2005. A number of more-recent High Court cases have followed the same line.

The law on what is patentable is the same across the whole of the European Community, so if something is unpatentable under United Kingdom law, it will also be unpatentable elsewhere in Europe. The same does not apply to countries outside Europe. In the United States and Japan, the laws allow a wider range of computer-implemented inventions to be patented.