Brussels, 11/07/2005 (Agence Europe) - The European Patent Office (EPO) has 'taken note of the decision of the European Parliament not to accept the Directive on the patentability of computer-implemented inventions (CII)' explains an EPO press release.
EPO President, Alain Pompidou, said: "The objective of the directive would have been to harmonize the understanding of what constitutes a patentable invention in the field of CII". He added: 'The EPC provides the general legal basis for the grant of European patents, whereas the objective of the directive would have been to harmonise the EU member states' rules on CII and the relevant provisions of the EPC.'
The EPO comments that as with all inventions, 'CII are only patentable if they have technical character, are new and involve an inventive technical contribution to the prior art. Moreover, the EPO does not grant "software patents": computer programs claimed as such, algorithms or computer-implemented business methods that make no technical contribution are not considered patentable inventions under the EPC. In this respect, the practice of the EPO differs significantly from that of the United States Patent & Trademark Office.'