In its recently published guidelines (60 Fed. Reg. 28778, June 2, 1995), the US Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) said computer software programs stored in a tangible medium, such as a floppy disk, are patentable and must be examined to determine whether the substance of a computer-program related invention is a significant advance over prior technical achievement justifying the grant of a patent. In the past, the PTO had simply refused to examine the substance of such an invention. The PTO attributed its new approach to recent decisions by the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, which decides all patent appeals, favoring the patenting of software-related inventions. The paper discusses the items affected and considers multimedia applications.
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