Software patents - yet more confusion

In a press release, the UK-IPO has highlighted Mr Justice Patten's decision of today (available here from BAILII) to overturn the UK-IPO's decision to refuse an application by Symbian, on the grounds that it consisted solely of a computer program. The application "describes how in a computer a library of functions (DLL), which can be called on by multiple application programs running on the computer, is accessed. In particular, it provides a way of indexing these library functions to ensure the computer will continue to operate reliably after changes are made to the library."

The judge drew attention to the split between the attitudes of the UK-IPO and the EPO, since the EPO has already allowed the patent to be granted. However, the UK-IPO has said that it intends to appeal, arguing that the judge failed to use the Aerotel/Macrossan case.

Says the IPKat: and the EPO thinks there's no divergence of the patentability of computer programs as such...

Update: The Symbian case has prompted much coverage elsewhere, including from the BBC, The Register, Computer Weekly, IT Week and Out-Law. Some of the commentary to this post may also be worth reading, if you have the stomach for it.