[Commons-Law] Software patents under Ordinance face reversal

[Ram]

>Financial Express  
  
Patents to LG, Nokia, Philips under review 
  
Software patents under Ordinance face reversal

K G NARENDRANATH

New Delhi, March 28  The Patent Office is likely to reverse the
patents granted to embedded software during the period the Ordinance
was in force. While the Patents Ordinance had allowed such patenting,
the Amendment Bill passed in Parliament last week had dropped the
clause that allowed patenting of software-related inventions.

Since December 27, 2004, when the Ordinance was promulgated, letters
have been issued to many claimants of software-related patents, asking
them to establish the compliance with the technical requirements for
patenting.

When contacted, Controller General of Patents and Trademarks S
Chandrasekharan told FE that patenting process for software-related
inventions initiated after December Ordinance would now be reversed.
He was, however, non-committal when asked whether the patents granted
prior to the Ordinance would also be revoked.

Multinational electronics companies such as LG, Nokia, Siemens,
Philips and Samsung had obtained a spate of Indian patents on sundry
mechanical applications of software. According to sources, over 150
patents on "technical effects of software" had been granted in the
country even prior to the December Ordinance. These patents were
granted despite the legal ambiguity that had prevailed prior to
issuance of the Ordinance.

The Patent Office had interpreted the law leniently in favour of
patent seekers. Not only that, as soon as the Ordinance clarified that
software could be patented if embedded with hardware, the Patent
Office had begun the patenting process afresh for a large number of
such inventions.

Patents granted to software-enabled inventions include video imaging
systems in mobile telephone handsets, data transmission systems as
well as methods for controlling speeds of devices.

Legal experts point out that software-related patents already granted
could be successfully challenged in courts, given the clarification of
the law in the recent amendment. Many countries give patents to
software-enabled technical effects, while some like the US allow even
patenting of software per se.

A large section of the Indian IT software and services industry has
been pitching for patenting of software embedded with hardware arguing
it would help increase commercial value of domestically developed
software and augment exports. The counter argument is software
processes are just mathematic algorithms that do not qualify as
inventions. Left parties had claimed that only foreign MNCs would
benefit from software patents.

The Patent Office is planning to start a project for comprehensive
search of non-patent literature on inventions. Currently, while prior
art information regarding patent applications and grants is available
under the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) mechanism,
there is a huge shortcoming about accessing non-patent literature.
 
  
  
URL: http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=86454

-- 
Prabhu Ram,
Max-Planck-Institut for Intellectual Property, Competition and Tax Law,
MarstallPlatz 1, 
80539 Munich
GERMANY

Tel: + 49 89 24246226
Mob: + 49 17629830521
Web: http://infoserve.blogspot.com