There is no reason in principle to exclude claims to computer programs from patentability under Art.52 where the claims to a method performed by running a suitably programmed computer or to a computer program to carry out the method are allowable. The question in each case is whether the technical effect produced by the invention … Continue reading Astron Clinica Ltd and others v The Comptroller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks: PatC 25 Jan 2008
The applicant sought patents for systems of document management. The applications had been rejected as being for computer programs as such. Held: The exclusion from protection created by the section was to be construed narrowly. In the absence of non-mental limitations, the product should not be excluded. Judges: Floyd J Citations: [2008] EWHC 649 (Pat), … Continue reading Kapur v Comptroller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks: PatC 10 Apr 2008
Peter Prescott QC J set out the four steps to be taken: ‘The approach is in four steps: ‘(1) properly construe the claim; (2) identify the actual contribution; (3) ask whether it falls solely within the excluded subject matter; (4) check whether the actual or alleged contribution is actually technical in nature.’ (see Aerotel at … Continue reading Lantana Ltd v The Comptroller-General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks: PatC 4 Sep 2013
The company appealed against the rejection of its claim for a patent. Held: Lewison J said: ‘The manipulation of data stored on a computer (whether on the computer in use or on a remote computer) is unlikely to give rise to a contribution that exists independently of whether it is implemented by a computer’ Judges: … Continue reading Autonomy Corporation Ltd v The Comptroller General of Patents, Trade Marks and Designs: PatC 6 Feb 2008
The company appealed against refusal of patentunder the provision restricting such for ‘uses of human embryos for industrial or commercial purposes’ Held: The matter was referred to the ECJ. Henry Carr QC [2013] EWHC 807 (Ch), [2013] 3 CMLR 14, [2014] RPC 2, BL O/316/12, [2013] 3 CMLR 14, [2014] RPC 2 Bailii Patents Act … Continue reading International Stem Cell Corporation v Comptroller General of Patents: ChD 17 Apr 2013
The inventor company appealed against rejection of its application for a patent for a computer program. Held: The appeal failed: ‘on the facts found by the Hearing Officer, the invention is no more than the computerisation of a process which could already be done without a computer. It has no relevant technical effect. Accordingly, the … Continue reading Lantana Ltd v The Comptroller General of Patents, Design and Trade Marks: CA 13 Nov 2014
AI created Invention is not Patentable The case appears to be about artificial intelligence and whether AI-based machines can make patentable inventions – correct processing of application Held: The appeal failed. On the face of the Form 7s he filed, Dr Thaler did not comply with either of the requirements laid down by section 13(2), … Continue reading Thaler v Comptroller General of Patents Trade Marks and Designs: CA 21 Sep 2021
No Pattern Established to Patent Computer Systems The Comptroller appealed against the decision in Chancery to grant a patent to the clamant for an invention which the comptroller said should have been excluded from protection under section 1(2) as a computer program. It was argued that the UK was taking a different approach to the … Continue reading Symbian Ltd v Comptroller General of Patents: CA 8 Oct 2008
In each case it was said that the requested patent concerned an invention consisting of a computer program, and was not therefore an invention and was unpatentable. In one case a patent had been revoked on being challenged, and in the other, the appeal was against refusal. Held: Jacob LJ said: ‘the court must approach … Continue reading Aerotel Ltd v Telco Holdings Ltd and others, In re Patent Application GB 0314464.9 in the name of Neal Macrossan Rev 1: CA 27 Oct 2006
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Patent infringement action. Judges: The Hon Mr Justice Kitchin Citations: [2005] EWHC 3024 (Ch) Links: Bailii Statutes: Patents Act 1977 64 Jurisdiction: England and Wales Citing: Cited – Cobbold v London Borough of Greenwich CA 9-Aug-1999 The tenant had sought an order against the council landlord for failure to repair her dwelling. The defendant appealed … Continue reading Forticrete Ltd v Lafarge Roofing Ltd: ChD 25 Nov 2005
IPO The application concerned a flood protection system. The Hearing Officer decided that the latest version of the claim on the official file at the end of the compliance period was anticipated by three earlier published patent applications. However, he decided that if the compliance period were to be extended, the applicant should be able … Continue reading Thomas R Cann (Patent): IPO 17 Oct 2012
IPO In apparatus for electronic trading a spreadsheet application calculated a series of trading commands from incoming market data and stored them in a queue to be sent at predetermined intervals to an electronic trading system (ETS); since the commands might not be synchronised with market conditions by the time they were transmitted they were … Continue reading CFPH LLC (Patent): IPO 10 Aug 2007
As a result of an uncontested application filed under Section 13(1) by DNA Electronics Ltd, it was found that Leila Shepherd should be mentioned as a joint inventor in any patent granted for the invention and directed that an addendum slip be prepared mentioning her as a joint inventor for the published patent application for … Continue reading DNA Electronics Ltd, Christofer Toumazou, Bhusana Premanode and Leila Shepherd (Patent): IPO 14 May 2007
IPO This application relates to an electronic gaming machine such as a ‘slot machine’ wherein players receive monetary awards which are displayed, for example, in the form of a three digit number. The player can then choose whether to keep the original award or to modify or gamble the award. A number of methods are … Continue reading IGT (Patent) O/099/07: IPO 5 Apr 2007
Citations: O/286/05, [2005] UKIntelP o28605 Links: IPO, Bailii Statutes: Patents Act 1977 Intellectual Property Updated: 19 October 2022; Ref: scu.456441
IPO The Hearing Officer found that the proprietor, represented by the General Manager (the Directing Mind), had effectively taken reasonable care to see that the sixteenth year renewal fee was paid by issuing standing instructions that renewal fees should be paid automatically on any overseas patent which was licenced, even if its Japanese parent patent … Continue reading Sumitomo Rubber Industries Limited (Patent): IPO 14 Nov 2003
IPO Excluded fields (allowed) – The applications relate to the use of parallel processing in active memory applications. Following the CFPH approach, the Hearing Officer was able to identify an advance in the art that lay outside the description of an invention in the sense of Article 52 of the EPC. However, he could find … Continue reading Micron Europe Limited (Patent): IPO 20 Sep 2006
The claimant sought statutory compensation, having whilst employee of the defendant, created a pump which came to widely used in the testing of diabetic status. Judges: Arnold J Citations: [2014] EWHC 1647 (Pat), [2014] RPC 29, [2014] WLR(D) 242 Links: Bailii, WLRD Statutes: Patents Act 1977 41(1) Jurisdiction: England and Wales Citing: See Also – … Continue reading Shanks v Unilever Plc and Others: PatC 23 May 2014
Appeal against refusal to admit supplementary statement of case. The claimant had, while employed by the defendant created a pump which came to be widely used in the management of diabetes. He was seeking recompense for his contribution. Judges: Mann J Citations: [2009] EWHC 3164 (Ch), [2010] RPC 11, [2010] Bus LR 761, (2010) 33(2) … Continue reading Shanks v Unilever Plc and Others: ChD 3 Dec 2009
SC Kymab alleged that the relevant patents are invalid for insufficiency because they did not enable the ordinary skilled person to work the claimed invention across the breadth of the claims. The patents were concerned with biotechnology, and in particular the production of human antibodies using transgenic mice. By the priority date, the potential uses … Continue reading Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc v Kymab Ltd: SC 24 Jun 2020
The applicant appealed rejection of its application for a patent for a method and apparatus for modelling synthetic crystalline structures. The apparatus would involve (indeed consist of) a computer programmed for the task. Held: A pure software application or method did not become registrable merely because it took control of a computer screen; it was … Continue reading In Re A Patent Application No 9204959 2 by Fujitsu Ltd; Merrill Lynch, Gale, and Fujitsu Limited’s Application: ChD 18 Jun 1996
The claimant had asserted a joint authorship of the song ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’ written in the sixties. The defendant appealed saying that the claim had been brought too late, and that the finding ignored practice in the music industry. The copyright in the song had already been assigned by the authors before the … Continue reading Brooker and Another v Fisher: CA 4 Apr 2008
The validity of a patent was challenged at the same time in both UK and European courts. Mummery LJ discussed the inherent consequences of a race between the jurisdictions: ‘the possibility of the duplication of proceedings contesting the validity of a patent granted by the EPO is inherent in the system established by the Convention. … Continue reading Glaxo Group Ltd v Genentech Inc and Another: CA 31 Jan 2008
The claimant sought damages alleging patent infringement. The defendant responded by saying that the patent was invalid as a scheme, rule or method for doing business as such. Judges: Lewison J Citations: [2006] EWHC 997 (Pat) Links: Bailii, Bailii Statutes: Patent Act 1977 1 Cited by: Appeal from – Aerotel Ltd v Telco Holdings Ltd … Continue reading Aerotel Ltd v Telco Holdings Ltd: PatC 3 May 2006
The House considered a case involving the issue of enablement of a particular peptide in a patent application. Held: On the assumed facts that there had been a prior disclosure of the same invention neither the disclosed information nor common general knowledge would have enabled the skilled man to make it. The argument that the … Continue reading Asahi Kasei Kogyo KK’s Application: HL 1991
The appellant challenged dismissal of its claim for patent infringement. The judge had held that the design was obvious, involving essentially only the collocation of two known features. Held: Collocation was no more than a species of obviousness, and the test remained to be performed as to whether the bringing together of the two ideas, … Continue reading SABAF SpA v MFI Furniture Centres Ltd and Another: CA 11 Jul 2002
A patent infingement claim was met by the assertion that the material covered had been disclosed before the patent had been obtained. The court was asked as to the test of whether the information in a claim had been disclosed. Aldous J said: ‘Mr. Thorley submitted that if a product had been made available to … Continue reading PLG Research Ltd and Another v Ardon International Ltd and Others: ChD 25 Nov 1994
(Hong Kong) The claimants complained of the sale by the defendants of refilled cartridges for use with their printers. Held: The spare cartridge manufacturer’s appeal failed: ‘repair is by definition something which does not amount to the manufacture of the patented article, it is not an infringement of the monopoly conferred by the patent. It … Continue reading Kaisha v Green Cartridge Company (Hong Kong) Limited: PC 30 Apr 1997
A patent claim for an important protein called Tissue Plasminogen Activator was objected to on the basis of the obviousness of the gene sequence. Held: The court considered the categories of exclusion in the context of what was said to be a discovery – namely the gene sequence which caused TPA to be expressed. A … Continue reading Genentech’s (Human Growth Hormone) Patent: CA 1989
The applicant sought to patent an expert system embodied in a computer program for storing information in a way which allowed particular access. Held: ‘Before turning to the claims, I must deal with a submission of Mr Burkill, who appeared for the applicant. He submitted that the words ‘a scheme, rule or method for performing … Continue reading Wang Laboratories Inc’s Application: ChD 1990
A patent application was made for a system for the automatic recognition of ships by comparison of a digital image with data stored in a computer database. Held: The court gave a wider meaning to the phrase ‘mental act’ Citations: [1993] RPC 427 Statutes: Patents Act 1977 1 Cited by: Cited – Aerotel Ltd v … Continue reading Raytheon’s Application: 1993
The court rejected an application for a patent for, inter alia, a ‘data processing system for making a trading market in at least one security in which the system proprietor is acting as principal’. Held: Falconer J said: ‘In my judgment, where an invention for which a patent is sought involves any of the matters … Continue reading Merrill Lynch’s Application: ChD 1988
The claimant appealed from refusal of statutory compensation under the 1977 Act. He had invented a form of pump which was used by his employers, the respondents in the management of diabetes management. Held: The appeal succeeded: ‘the correct approach to the application of section 40 and the one that does least violence to its … Continue reading Shanks v Unilever Plc and Others: SC 23 Oct 2019
Rehearing/Review – Little Difference on Appeal The appellant asked the Court to reverse a decision on the facts reached in the lower court. Held: The appeal failed (Majority decision). The court’s approach should be the same whether the case was dealt with as a rehearing or as a review. Tanfern was limited to appeals from … Continue reading Assicurazioni Generali Spa v Arab Insurance Group (BSC): CA 13 Nov 2002
validity of patent. Held: No formula should distract the court from the statutory question. [2009] EWCA Civ 646, [2009] RPC 23, (2009) 109 BMLR 78, (2009) 32(9) IPD 32062 Bailii England and Wales Citing: Cited – Brugger v Medic-Aid Ltd (No 2) ChD 1996 B alleged infringement by M of its patented nebulizer. M replied … Continue reading Generics (UK) Ltd v Daiichi Pharmaceutical Co Ltd and Another: CA 2 Jul 2009
These proceedings raise, for the first time in the courts of the United Kingdom, the question how the concepts of sufficiency and infringement are to be applied to a patent relating to a specified medical use of a known pharmaceutical compound. Four issues arose: (i) the construction of the claims (in particular, Claim 3 as … Continue reading Warner-Lambert Company Llc v Generics (UK) Ltd (T/A Mylan) and Another: SC 14 Nov 2018
A patent for a substance which had been produced naturally before the application of the process was invalid. The patent was invalidated after the discovery that the effect was produced naturally from an acid metabolite. Patent infringement does not require that one should be aware that one is infringing: ‘whether or not a person is … Continue reading Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals Inc and Another v H N Norton and Co Ltd; Same v Penn Etc: HL 26 Oct 1995
The applicant had devised a new and better algorithm for finding square roots. Having embodied the method in a read only chip which could be installed within a computer which could then apply the algorithm, he sought to patent it. Held: Allowing the appeal and finding that it was not patentable the court found the … Continue reading Gale’s Application: CA 1991
Held: The court must answer a relatively simple question of fact: was it obvious to the skilled but unimaginative addressee to make a product or carry out a process falling within the claim Lord Justice Moore-Bick Lord Justice Lewison And Lord Justice Kitchin [2012] EWCA Civ 1234, [2013] RPC 27 Bailii England and Wales Cited … Continue reading MedImmune Ltd v Novartis Pharmaceuticals UK Ltd: CA 10 Oct 2012
Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd sought to recover damages exceeding 49,000,000 pounds for the infringement of a European Patent which did not exist in the form said to have been infringed. The Technical Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office had retrospectively amended it so as to remove with effect from the date of grant … Continue reading Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd v Zodiac Seats UK Ltd: SC 3 Jul 2013
IPO The claimant launched entitlement proceedings in respect of four withdrawn and unpublished patent applications, arguing that the defendant had made the inventions during the course of his duties whilst employed by the claimant. The claimant argued that the defendant was a director of Cerise Innovation at the time when the inventions were made and … Continue reading Cerise Innovation Technology Ltd vAbdulhayoglu (Patent) O/067/00: IPO 23 Feb 2000
IPO Inventorship – An uncontested application was filed by the proprietor E.V. Offshore Limited under rule 10(2) of the Patents Rules 2007. As a result, it was found that Matthew Gibson-Ford should be mentioned as a joint inventor along with Jonathan Thursby and Shaun Peck in the published patent application for the invention and directed … Continue reading EV Offshore Limited, Jonathan Thursby, Shaun Peck and Matthew Gibson-Ford (Patent): IPO 12 Jun 2014
The invention in this case was an improved ‘data processing system for making a trading market in at least one security in which the system proprietor is acting as principal.’ Held: More than one exclusion can be in play in relation to the same application. Inventive excluded matter cannot count as a technical advance. Fox … Continue reading Merrill Lynch’s Application: CA 1989
A computer program modelling a crystal structure is not patentable; it was not a hardware function, and software is not capable of protection under Patents law. Aldous LJ repeated his concern at the so called ‘technical contribution test’ for patentability: ‘I, like Nicholls LJ [in Gale], have difficulty in identifying clearly the boundary line between … Continue reading In Re Patent Application No 9204959 by Fujitsu Ltd: CA 14 Mar 1997
Claim to Patent for Computer Chip was Valid The applicant had implemented an algorithm for solving square roots problems by embodying it within a computer chip. He appealed against refusal of the patent by the Patents Office. Held: The appeal succeeded. Aldous J said: ‘I have come to the conclusion that the ROM claimed cannot … Continue reading Gales Application: ChD 1990
The claims arose in connection with the validity and alleged infringement of a European Patent on erythropoietin (‘EPO’). Held: ‘Construction is objective in the sense that it is concerned with what a reasonable person to whom the utterance was addressed would have understood the author to be using the words to mean. Notice, however, that … Continue reading Kirin-Amgen Inc and others v Hoechst Marion Roussel Limited and others etc: HL 21 Oct 2004
The plaintiffs had been established as market leaders with their patented construction, had ample production capacity and stocks, but had never granted any licence under their patent. The patent was for a novel type of galvanised steel lintel, which the relevant claim described as including a rear support back plate ‘extending vertically’ from a horizontal … Continue reading Catnic Components Ltd and Another v Hill and Smith Ltd: HL 1982
Allegation of infringement of patent for airline seats. The claimant sought to challenge the grant of a European Patent. Held: Virgin’s appeal was dismissed. England had surrendered jurisdiction to review or investigate the decision of European Patent Office (EPO) to register a patent Patten, Black, Kitchin LJJ [2013] EWCA Civ 1713, [2013] WLR (D) 511, … Continue reading Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd v Jet Airways (India) Ltd and Others: CA 20 Dec 2013
The claimant sought a share in the royalties from the song ‘A whiter shade of pale’ but had delayed his claim for 38 years. He had contributed the organ solo which had contributed significantly to the song’s success. He now sought a share of future royalties. Held: His appeal was allowed. Limitation did not apply, … Continue reading Fisher v Brooker and Others: HL 30 Jul 2009
The bank had entered into a master trading agreement with a trader under which the trader bought motor vehicles as agent for the bank for resale. The vehicles belonged to the bank. The defendant bought all the trader’s vehicles. The defendant now . .
The parties disputed whether there had been an infringement of the claimant’s patent in respect for ‘intermediate bulk containers’ designed for the safe transport of liquids in bulk. They were a cage holding a plastic bottle. The defendant had a . .
The court should incline towards patentability in the case of computer programs: ‘I am anxious that these exclusions are not given too wide a scope. All modern industry depends upon programmed computers, and one must be astute not to defeat patents . .
The applicant had implemented an algorithm for solving square roots problems by embodying it within a computer chip. He appealed against refusal of the patent by the Patents Office.
Held: The appeal succeeded.
Aldous J said: ‘I have come . .
