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A judgement of the Court of Appeal issued on 8 October 2008 dismissed the Appeal by the UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) against a Decision of Mr Justice Patten. Mr Justice Patten, in the High Court, had allowed an appeal by Symbian Ltd against the UK IPO’s decision to refuse UK Patent Application No GB 0325145.1. The application had been refused on the ground that the invention was excluded from patentability under Section 1(2) of the UK Patents Act 1977 as being a program for a computer.
The invention at issue relates to mapping dynamic link libraries (DLLs) in a computing device. DLLs were already known as a means of storing functions common to a number of different applications. The problem related to difficulties encountered when parties add further functionality to a DLL (for example by an upgrade of the operating system and by an additional piece of hardware) independently of each other. The claimed solution splits a DLL into two parts, the first part being effectively a fixed part and a second, extension, part enabling the addition of further functions at further locations.
The Court of Appeal reviewed past decision of the UK Courts and the EPO Boards of Appeal in reaching its decision and held [at § 58]:
“Therefore, it must mean, consistently with Vicom and the two IBM Corp. cases, that a technical innovation, whether within (as in the last-mentioned cases) or outside the computer will normally suffice to ensure patentability (subject of course to the claimed invention not falling foul of the other exclusions in art 52(2))”.
The full decision is published at http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2008/1066.html
A more detailed paper will follow on this site.