Software Patent

June 30, 2015

Writing Provisional Software Patent Applications

In the age of the “Lean Startup” $100,000 can be enough to get a startup well off the ground. However, with such tight budgets and limited funding there is often not much room left to pay a professional patent agent several thousand dollars to draft your patent application. This article provides some pointers on how to draft your own provisional software patent application.
January 8, 2015

Commissioner Approves eBay’s Automated Email Notification Patent

Commissioner’s Decision # 1369 - Two elements of the invention were found to be inventive: (1) the “push” process for keeping status information up-to-date, and (2) the automatic notification system that automatically sends an email message only when a delivery status has changed.
December 12, 2014

UK Court holds email file transfer program is unpatentable subject matter

Lantana Ltd v The Comptroller General of Patents, Design and Trade Marks, [2014] EWCA Civ 1463 - The UK Court rejected a patent on a method of transferring files via email communication for unpatentable subject matter for being no more than a computer program.
October 28, 2014

Commissioner Upholds Rejection of Patent on Computerized Auction System

Commissioner’s Decision # 1355 - Canadian Patent Application No. 2,493,971 on a computerized auction system was rejected for lack of statutory subject matter for being merely an abstract set of rules.
June 20, 2014

Reciting a Generic Computer or Conventional Computer Implementation Not Sufficient to Render an Otherwise Abstract Idea Patent Eligible

Alice Corp v CLS Bank, No 13–298, 573 US ____ (2014) - The US Supreme Court rejected patent claims that “relate to a computerized scheme for mitigating ‘settlement risk’" for being drawn to the abstract idea of intermediated settlement. Merely requiring generic computer implementation fails to transform that abstract idea into a patent-eligible invention.
October 2, 2013

PAB Holds Computer-Implemented Method of Fraud Detection Is Not Statutory Subject Matter

Re. Patent Application No. 2,144,068, CD 1339 This decision was a review by the Patent Appeal Board of the Examiner’s final rejection in respect of Canadian […]
October 1, 2013

PAB Holds Computer-Implemented Method of Standardizing Bills of Resources Not Patentable Subject Matter

Re. Patent Application No. 2,304,195, CD 1338 This decision was a review by the Patent Appeal Board (PAB) of the final rejection of patent application no. […]
July 16, 2013

PAB Applies Amazon, Finds a Computer-Implemented Method of Communicating the Cost of Insurance to Be Patentable Subject Matter

Re. Patent Application No. 2,344,781, CD 1336 This is an Appeal Board decision regarding patent application number 2,344,781 entitled "Monitoring System for Determining and Communicating a […]
July 11, 2013

PAB Applies Amazon, Finds a Tax Calculation System to Be Patentable Subject Matter

Re. Patent Application No. 2306540, CD 1334 This patent application concerned the tracking of required payments or refunds of value added taxes for mailpieces. The Final […]
May 29, 2013

New Zealand Moves to Exclude Software “as such” from Patentable Subject Matter

Link to the proposed amendments to the Patents Bill.   Rather than excluding a computer program from being a patentable invention, the amendments clarify that a computer program […]
April 19, 2013

Summary of CIPO’s Post-Amazon Examination Practice on Computer-Implemented Inventions

Examination Practice Respecting Computer-Implemented Inventions – PN 2013-03 These guidelines build upon the guidance in Chapter 16 (Computer-Implemented Inventions) of the MOPOP and in PN 2013-02 […]
March 28, 2013

PAB Applies Amazon.com, Finds Method for Updating Navigation Systems Installed in Vehicles Is Patentable Subject Matter

CD 1332, Re. Patent Application No. 2,195,252 entitled "System and Method for Distributing Information for Storage Media" This decision deals with a review by the Commissioner […]