Case law

Case law is only really of interest to us if it's based on "patentable subject matter" - what categories of ideas can or cannot be patented.

Case law on subject matter

There are many criteria on which a court can rule a patent to be invalid. A court might say the patent wasn't original enough, or wasn't sufficiently innovative. Those court rulings are not very interesting for our goal of excluding software from patentability. An example is the ruling in Germany which invalidated Microsoft's Fat32 patent.^{[reference needed]}

Examples of useful rulings include Aerotel v. Telco (2006, UK), and in re Bilski (2008, USA).

Case law around the world

Canada

• Amazon v. Commissioner for Patents (2010, Canada)

England and Wales

See: Case law in the UK

Germany

See: Case law in Germany

United States of America

See: Case law in the USA

Related pages on ESP Wiki

• Category:Case law by region
• Case law in Germany
• Case law in the UK
• Case law in the USA
• How to read patents
• Patent governance

External links

• Dr. David Garrod's Glossaries of [USA] Judicial Claim Constructions Available Free of Charge