Israel
Israel's patent office opened a consultation on software patents in November 2009. The deadline for submissions is 15 February 2010.
Contents
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."
This text was brought into force on in January 2000 in reaction to the TRIPS treaty.
There is a lot of discussion about the obviously problematic term "technology", and there is also a lot of discussion with the term "per se" (maybe this is somewhere else in the Israeli law books).
September 2006: software patents abolished
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.
Software patents returning?
In response to the abolition of software patents, a pro-software-patent lobby group, AIPPI organised a public meeting with the Commissioner and Ehud Hausman (a patent lawyer). Hausman reported in May 2008 that the IPO is now allowing (some? all?) software patents (but is still not granting business method patents).
Case law
A 2009 presentation by the IPO mentions the case of patent 142049, which was a patent on displaying thumbnail on a website, which was rejected in 2005 by the IPO's Hearing Office when reexamined. The 131733 patent, rejected in September 2006 is an example of a business method patent being rejected by the IPO.
There is also the 1994 decision of the Jerusalem District Court, C.A. 23/94 (Jerusalem) United Technologies Corporation v. The Registrar of Patents, Designs and Trademarks, District Court Decisions, Vol. 26 (8), 729:
- http://www.questel.com/piug/piugl_97/0500.html
- http://www.questel.com/piug/piugl_97/0501.html
- http://www.questel.com/piug/piugl_97/0502.html
External links
- IPO presentation about software patents (date? May 26th 2009?)
- 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