Jenkins Success in Patenting Software

Our Alvin Lam reports a successful hearing before the EPO Board of Appeal in a software case.  He persuaded Board 3.5.06 to overturn a decision of an Examining Division to refuse a patent application directed to an optimised parallel processing method of unloading tables in a database.  The Board held that absent evidence or implication in the available prior art that a generally well-known optimisation algorithm was well-known in the context of database processing or specific kinds of operations, it is not sufficient to show obviousness by the mere fact that the algorithm is well-known per se nor the fact that it is straightforward to adapt the algorithm to the particular problem. The full analysis can be found in the Reasons for the Decision in T 0353/07.

Alvin comments that it is reassuring to see that the EPO will grant patents for software that provides a technical impact.