FOR quite some time now we have looked at the patent situation in the EU. European patent lawyers stalk blog posts such as this one, which help them push their agenda (software patents in Europe). This one post speaks of an appeal:
This appeal was filed against a decision to refuse a European patent for lack of inventive step.
Cash continues to be king at Emblaze, the Israeli technology firm which is suing Apple for alleged patent infringements.
On 15th March 2012 the Israeli patent registrar has issued new guidelines to determine patentable inventions by clarifying the definition of "technological invention", as defined by Section 3 of the Patent Law. Until recently, software inventions were treated according to case law, which did not provide clear guidelines and was interpreted differently by different examiners. This resulted in applications being treated differently, making it practically impossible for an applicant to predict whether its application would be accepted.
The long-awaited guidelines clarify the Israeli approach regarding software inventions in an attempt to make all Israeli examinations consistent. The guidelines are far more convenient for applicants than the Patent Office's previous practice to date, and represent an attempt to address the fact that Israel is a leading authority in high-tech and software-related innovation.
According to the new guidelines, a claim will be considered as a whole when determining technological inventions and will not be separated into features for such determinations.
In order to be considered a patentable invention, the claimed process or system should comprise a concrete technological character or a concrete technical result. The guidelines refer to Decision G0003/08 of the Enlarged Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office in order to define a "concrete technological character". This is also an attempt to make the new Israeli guidelines compatible with the European approach.