Intellectual Property Issues
Computer Software
Software and pesticide have more in common than you might think, when it comes to patents.
Broadly speaking, computer software is patentable in Australia. The underlying principle is that an invention is patentable provided it results in an “artificially created state of affairs” having economic significance and it has been held that software is capable of meeting this requirement.
Software inventions are typically defined in terms of a method that can be performed by a software application, a physical system that provides the functionality of the software in question, or a medium that carries the software. There are, of course, some limitations. For example, Australian Patent Examiners tend to raise objections where an invention is thought to involve, for example, nothing more than a procedure for solving a particular type of mathematical problem.
The Australian position on patenting of software is similar to that in the United States, but is at odds with the position adopted in Europe and a number of other countries, which expressly preclude the patentability of software.
Much of the debate surrounding the patentability of software mirrors that which occurred with the protection of pesticide use by the agricultural industry. Decades later, thanks to their patentability, the agricultural chemical industry is seen as having been responsible for many breakthroughs that have (arguably) saved the agricultural industry millions of dollars via well-protected crops.
Click here for a spokesperson The Institute of Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys of Australia (IPTA) is the peak professional body representing Australian patent and trade mark attorneys.
Phone Australia: 03 9819 2004. Email: mail@ipta.org.au
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Intellectual Property Australia: Computer Software
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