The UK High Court judgment in the case of Lenovo (Singapore)
Pte Ltd and Comptroller General of Patents (Judge Birrs, 9
July 2020) deals with the issue of the exclusion of computer
programs and business methods “as such” from
patentability. This judgment is worth noting as the exclusion
exists in both UK and South African patent law, as well as in many
other countries.
The patent application in this case, “Selecting a
contactless payment card”, relates to the purchase of goods
with contactless payment devices such as credit cards. The problem
it seeks to solve is that of “card clash”. More
specifically, when the physical wallet presented contains more than
one card, which card must the electronic reader read? Or, if it
reads more than one card representing different accounts, which
account must be debited? The solution offered is that the system
automatically splits the payment between a plurality of accounts
according to one or more pre-set user preferences.
