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A High Court ruling could mean that, for the first time, software created in the UK can be patented. The ruling is a consequence of a case by software firm Symbian after it had a patent application rejected by the UK Intellectual Property Office (UK-IPO). The UK-IPO rejected the application on the grounds that the patent related to nothing more than a computer program - the UK-IPO currently only grants patents for inventions that use computer programs. However, the European Patent Office approved Symbian's application. The ruling by the High Court to overturn the UK-IPO decision means that programmers could secure better intellectual property rights for their programs. Programmers are calling for better harmonisation between UK and European intellectual property law.
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