Rainer Hilli & Tanja Liljeström
1. Software Patents under Discussion
The Ministry of Trade and Industry is currently preparing a national comment to the EU Proposal for a Directive on the patentability of computer-implemented inventions. Invited by the Ministry to comment, the National Board of Patents and Registration, which grants patents in Finland, has stated that the proposed Directive will not necessitate any changes to the Board’s current practice regarding computer programs, which is that computer programs are not patentable "as such", only as part of an invention that makes a technical contribution to the state of the art.
The Proposal for a Directive on the patentability of computer-implemented inventions (COM (2002) 92) was presented by the European Commission on 20 February 2002. According to the Commission, the current legal situation in Europe regarding patent protection in the field of computer-implemented inventions is ambiguous and lacks legal certainty. Although
