- statutory subject matter;
- enablement;
- written descriptions;
- industrial applicability;
- novelty; and
- non-obviousness.
To what extent can inventions covering software be patented?
To determine whether a software-related invention meets the definition of an ‘invention’, the content of the claimed invention – rather than the recitation form of the claims – must be considered in order to identify whether the invention (as a whole) is of a technical nature. If a portion of the claimed invention does not use the laws of nature, it will still meet the definition of an ‘invention’.
Judgments are made based on the technical features recited in the claims; but due to the special nature of software-related inventions, the specification must also be reviewed in order to understand the essential meaning of each feature of the claim.
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