Aerotel V Telco and Macrossan's Application - Effect On UK Practice

Effect On UK Practice

Following this judgment, the UK Patent Office (now the UK Intellectual Property Office) issued a Practice Note on 2 November 2006 announcing an immediate change in the way patent examiners will assess whether inventions relate to patentable subject matter. The Patent Office also prepared four case studies as examples of how they saw the test being applied in practice.

One change in practice that occurred was that claims to a computer program were rejected on the basis of the form of the claim, even if the process that was performed by the computer program was itself considered to be patentable. This new practice was challenged by Astron Clinica Ltd and others and the UK Patents Court judged that the practice was incorrect.

Read more about this topic:  Aerotel V Telco And Macrossan's Application

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