European Patent Office grants software patents

The European Patent Office (EPO) grants thousands of software patents every year, but denies granting any. This page lists some software patents they've granted.

The EPO's public denial

Here's an example of a public statment from the EPO. This is from 2009:

The EPO does not grant "software patents". The term itself is a misleading concept. Under the EPC a computer program claimed as such is not a patentable invention (Art. 52(2)(c) and (3) EPC). Inventions involving computer programs that implement business, mathematical or similar methods and do not produce technical effects (e. g. because they solve a business problem rather than a technical one) are not patentable, and no patents will be granted for such inventions in Europe.

List of granted software patents

• EP769170 - trapping viruses[1]
• EP803105 and EP738446 - selling things online
• EP249293 - pop-out-context-menu, , granted to Philips
• EP0618540 - the long filenames patent from Microsoft's FAT patents

Related pages on ESP Wiki

• Computer-implemented inventions
• European Patent Convention
• The Patented Webshop
• UPLS - a proposal from the European Commission which would create a centralised patent court that would probably uphold the EPO's software patents
• Do software patents exist in my area?
• Software patents exist in Europe, mostly
• EPO EBA referral G3-08 - EPO's internal review of software patents, reached no conclusion:
  • EPO rules own software patents review inadmissible

External links

• Examples of granted European business method patents, 2004, by Arnoud Engelfriet (see: Business method patents)