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A software patent is a patent on a piece of software, such as a computer program, library, user interface, or algorithm.The validity of these patents can be difficult to evaluate, as software is often at once a product of engineering, something typically eligible for patents, and an abstract concept, which is typically not.
This is a list of software patents, which contains notable patents and patent applications involving computer programs (also known as a software patent). Software patents cover a wide range of topics and there is therefore important debate about whether such subject-matter should be excluded from patent protection. [ 1 ]
The regulations under the PCT do touch on the search and examination of computer programs. [10]Rule 39.1 PCT states that . No International Searching Authority shall be required to search an international application if, and to the extent to which, its subject matter is any of the following: ...
Leading open-source figures and companies [10] have complained that software patents are overly broad and the USPTO should reject most of them. Bill Gates has said "If people had understood how patents would be granted when most of today’s ideas were invented, and had taken out patents, the industry would be at a complete standstill today".
The economic effects of intellectual property reform in India is a complex subject area, and would require a separate detailed article. A beginning may be made by referring to Sunil Kanwar and Stefan Sperlich (2020), [18] who study the effect of intellectual property reform on technological advancement and productivity increases in manufacturing industry in the emerging market context of India.
Patentable subject matter in the United States is governed by 35 U.S.C. 101. The two particularly contentious areas, with numerous reversals of prior legislative and judicial decisions, have been computer-based and biological inventions. [9] [10] The US practice of patentable subject matter is very different from that of the European Patent Office.
There have been no dispute settlement procedures regarding software patents. Its relevance for patentability in the domains of, for example, computer-implemented business methods, computer science and software information technology remains uncertain, since the TRIPS agreement is subject to interpretation, [4] like all legal texts.
Like the other parts of the paragraph 2, computer programs are open to patenting to the extent that they provide a technical contribution to the prior art.In the case of computer programs and according to the case law of the Boards of Appeal, a technical contribution typically means a further technical effect that goes beyond the normal physical interaction between the program and the computer.