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Draft Directive on Computer-implemented inventions

United Kingdom
12/03/2002
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The European Commission has recently issued a proposal for a Directive harmonising the law in Member States on computer-implemented inventions. The proposed Directive will codify and clarify present practice in the European Patent Office (EPO) and in the United Kingdom but shall remove some of the uncertainties of present practice in some other Member States.

Pursuant to the draft Directive patents shall be available in all fields of technology including computer-implemented inventions. In accordance with normal European patent principles, computer-implemented inventions shall be protectable if new, inventive and industrially applicable. In demonstrating an “inventive step it shall be necessary for the invention to be shown to make a “technical contribution to the art. “Technical contribution is defined in the draft Directive as “a contribution to the state of the art in a technical field which is not obvious to a person skilled in the art. There are likely to be difficulties in practice in establishing what such “technical contribution must be.

The proposed Directive shall now be submitted to the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament for adoption under the “co-decision procedure. If adopted, the Directive shall require implementation in each Member State.

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