Another decision on Software Patents in the UK

- Protecting Kids The World Over (PKTWO) Limited

On 26 October Mr Justice Floyd (Patents Court, England and Wales) delivered another blow to the UKIPO and their overly broad construction of the “program for a computer”/”mental act” exclusions to patentability under Section 1(2) of the UK Patents Act 1977. This latest decision follows quickly after a similar decision in Halliburton Energy Inc’s patent, as reported here.

In this latest case, known as “PKTWO”, the patent application covers a computer system for monitoring online electronic conversations, e.g. to make sure that children are not exposed to inappropriate language.

A “data communications analysis engine” monitors the communications (e.g. by “packet sniffing” the electronic data packets) and generates an alert message to inform a parent when the words or expressions used are inappropriate and so might give cause for concern. The parent can then intervene, such as by remotely shutting down the conversation.

Floyd J observed:

• The concept of alerting a user, at a remote terminal, is a physical one rather than an abstract one
• The contribution of claimed invention, viewed as a whole, is “an improved monitoring of the content of electronic communications” and this monitoring is technically superior to that produced by the prior art.

Therefore, he decided that the claimed invention did not wholly reside within the “computer program as such” exclusion. He found that the invention “solves a technical problem lying outside the computer, namely how to improve on the inappropriate communication alarm generation provided by the prior art, and that is sufficient to overcome the objection”.

Decisions such as these will no doubt be welcomed by many Patent Attorneys working in this field. With more healthy build up of case law on this subject, UKIPO is bound to take notice.

For more information, please contact our head of the Electronics team, Ian Robinson.