UK Takes One More Step Towards Software Patents

As we eagerly await the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) ruling in the

Bilski case -- which could greatly cut back on the ability of the US Patent Office to

grant software and business model patents, it looks Europe may be moving in the opposite

direction. We had earlier reported on a ruling in the UK which said that the UK Patent

Office had gone too far in tossing out a Symbian patent application because it was

software. Now, a UK appeals court has agreed with the earlier ruling, effectively

saying that Symbian can, in fact, patent software in the UK, despite earlier policies that

did not allow software patents.

The reasoning behind the ruling is a little odd, as it seems mostly based on aligning UK

patent rules with the rest of Europe's. However, that doesn't mean that the ruling

actually makes sense or does anything towards promoting innovation (and, plenty of recent

studies show quite clearly that software patents appear to do exactly the opposite). This

is definitely bad news for the software industry in the UK, which will now find more

tollbooths to deal with, and more patent thickets to pick through. Money is going to be

wasted going after legal fights, rather than on research, development and actually serving

customers.

Posted: 10/13/2008 10:09:35 PM

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