Software patents - the official line

The European Patent Office - the body charged with granting European patents for states to the European Patent Convention (EPC) - has set up a website providing information on the "law and practice" under the EPC in relation to computer implemented inventions and also on proposed legislative reforms on the patentability of such inventions.

The website could be good news for commentators looking for unbiased and reliable information on the vexed question of software patents.  Sources on the web often lurch between the two extremes of opinion - that there should be no exclusion from patentability simply because it's implemented through software against those who wish to exclude software completely from the field of patentable inventions!  As the EPO appears to have shifted in favour of a wider scope of grants, their commentary will undoubtedly be subject to intense scrutiny.