When people think of inventions, their minds often travel to the likes of Thomas Edison or Alexander Graham Bell, who invented two of the most important machines in history. What they don’t realize is that the big money in patenting and inventions is now intelligence-based. Things like pharmaceuticals, chemical processes and software can all be patented. Patents for these items have been prolific during the past thirty years.
Software is perhaps the most challenging of all inventions that the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has had to regulate. There are so many variations on software creation that the rules seem endless. In fact, the USPTO’s regulations are different from those found in other worldwide patent organization. Are you looking to patent some of your software? You’ll need to consider the different methods of obtaining a patent across the globe.
The United States
One of the first software patents obtained came from the groundbreaking US Supreme Court decision for the case Diamond vs. Diehr, in 1981. In it, the Supreme Court decided that a computer process invented to improve the quality of cured rubber could be patented. This decision, along with other landmark decisions, brought the USPTO to a patent-regulation revolution: how can software be patented? Put quite simply, the definition of a software patent is muddy. Due to the many different kinds of software out there, many different languages, the opportunities for new software paradigms are endless. Therefore, arguably a software patent can be given to any new computerized business system that’s useful and tangible. The USPTO will always be enforcing its general requirements for inventions; particularly the software must be significantly different from prior art and must have a clear use. Some famous software patents include Google’s web searching algorithm or Amazon.com’s frequent buyer program.
Europe
Although Europe has formed an international organization dedicated to regulating European patents – the European Patent Office (EPO) – it does not currently have a clear definition of what is eligible for a software patent. In 1973, the European Patent Convention – which created the EPO – indicated very clearly that the EPO cannot allow for patents on computers or computer programs. The United Kingdom is not part of the EPO, but its patent office follows similar rules. Nonetheless, due to the ubiquity of software programs and the likelihood of intellectual property being copied, rules in these countries are being reexamined.
Japan
Like the United States and countries in Europe, Japan has a very lucrative software market. As a result, the country has taken steps to protect software-related intellectual property. Unlike the strict rules found in Europe, Japan has set up very clear and very easy-to-follow patent rules for software and for any related hardware. Many companies who have difficulty protecting their software creations in Europe go to Japan to obtain a patent.
India
In the past two decades, the software industry in India has grown exponentially. As a result, the demand for software patenting has become so defined that pressure grew on the Indian Patent Office to support such patents. Nevertheless, India made the decision to regulate software similar to the ways that Europe does, with one minor change: a software application itself – not the purpose of the application – can be patented.
Although there is no concrete method for patenting software across the globe, an inventor would find it best to search international databases to see if their idea has been patented in some way, shape or form. It may prevent a headache or two.
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