Patentability Of Computer Programme – Madras HC Clarifies Section 3(k) While Allowing Grant Of A Patent

The Madras High Court has set aside the Order of the Assistant Controller of Patents rejecting the patent for 'Associating Command Services with Multiple Active Components'. The Patent Office had rejected the patent alleging exclusion under Section 3(k) of the Patents Act, 1970 as constituting computer programme per se and not involving any inventive hardware. The finding of the Patent office that the invention lacked inventive step under Section 2(1)(ja) in view of certain prior arts, was also set aside by the High Court here. The applicant-appellant was represented by Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan Attorneys in this case.

The claimed invention processed commands to multiple unrelated applications by associating the command surface to more than one component registered to receive commands from the command surface. This enabled the outflow of commands to unrelated applications from a single command surface removing the necessity of multiple command surfaces. According