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Israel
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Israel's patent office opened a consultation on software patents in November 2009. The deadline for submissions is 15 February 2010.
Legislation
Section 3 of the Israeli Patents Law defines what types of innovations are patentable subject matter. It says:
- "3. An invention, whether a product or a process in any field of technology, which is new and useful and capable of industrial application and which involves an inventive step - is a patentable invention."
Recent past
In September 2006, the Commissioner of Patents in Israel invalidated a patent titled "Method of Promoting the Sale of Goods and/or Services". All parties agreed that this was a business method patent.
The patent was rejected by the Commissioner on the grounds that it failed to meet the "field of technology" requirement of the Israeli Patents Law.
A document dated May 2008[1] mentions the following events:
- A year and a half ago (thus around December 2006), there was an important a decision by the . The document seems to say that this decision changed Israeli Patent Office's (IPO) policy and stopped the granting of software patents and business method patents.
- Following "a debate in a public forum", the IPO is now allowing (some? all?) software patents, but is still not granting business method patents.
External links
- 2009-11-05: Invitation to Submit Briefs to IPO re Software Patent Policy in Israel
- 2009-11-02: Round Table on Software Patents at the Israel Patent Office
- Ehud Hausman and Saleit Berdugo wrote an informative document about the 2006 decision: The patentability of a method of doing business and software-related inventions in Israel