Israel
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.
Commentators Hausman and Berdugo (patent lawyers?) note that the Commissioner did say patents could be granted on "patentable hardware component and a non-patentable software component", but this confirmation is inconsequential. It just means that hardware innovations are patentable, and if you add some software, the patentability of the hardware innovation isn't affected.
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
