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ARTICLE · 06 FEBRUARY 2023

Software Patent Eligibility Practice At The EPO

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In common with many patent offices around the world, some inventions that are implemented in software may be patented before the European Patent Office (EPO).

United KingdomIntellectual Property
Chris Benson
Chris Benson
Bernhard Ganahl
Bernhard Ganahl
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In common with many patent offices around the world, some inventions that are implemented in software may be patented before the European Patent Office (EPO). In this article, we explore software patentability, covering why only some software inventions are patentable before the EPO, the requirements for an invention to be patentable and how patent practice before the EPO with respect to software inventions may evolve in the future.

The European Patent Convention (EPC) is the statute under which the EPO operates to determine the grant of European patents. The EPC defines that European patents shall be granted in all fields of technology but excludes a specific list of the subject matters considered inventions, which includes, inter alia, mathematical methods, methods for doing business and programs for computers. These exceptions from patentability have been described as relating to activities that do not aim for any direct technical result but are rather of an

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