In a long expected decision, the German Federal Supreme Court ruled patent claims regarding a storage medium (such as a diskette) with a computer program stored thereon are allowable as long as the program itself is patentable. With its decision, the Federal Supreme Court overruled a previous decision by the German Federal Patent Court, which had rejected the patent application for the storage medium. Decision of the German Federal Supreme Court, Case No. X ZB 16/00 (BPatG).
The case related to a patent application for a computer system for computer-aided spell checking in word processing software. The German Patent and Trademark Office had allowed the patent claim for the computer system as such but refused to grant the patent for the storage medium where the computer program was stored on. The German Federal Patent Court had confirmed this decision on the grounds that claims for a storage medium did not comprise the essential means for a technical solution and were exempted from
