Casting light on excluded subject-matter: recent changes in the UK Patent Office approach to patentable inventions

摘要

Following two recent decisions from the High Court, the UK Patent Office has changed the way it assesses whether or not an invention is excluded from patent protection by Section 1(2) of the UK Patents Act; this will be of major significance for applications filed in the UK, and particularly for those which concern computer-implemented inventions or business methods.