A recommended framework for software patents under the intellectual property code of the Philippines

• Main Author: Chu, Allan Christopher S.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2009
• Subjects: Computer software > Patents; Intellectual property > Philippines; Business Law, Public Responsibility, and Ethics
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_masteral/5880; https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/context/etd_masteral/article/12750/viewcontent/CDTG004455_FBing_Partial.pdf
• Institution: De La Salle University

The Software Industry is one of the largest growing industries in the world. Similar to other countries which are entering their stages of maturity, methods that provide for intellectual property protection and their effectively become more. The Intellectual Property Office in its Manual of Patent Evaluation has indicated that indeed a computer evaluated invention may be subject of a patent. But the manual did not state the scope and its exclusions, leaving the actual evaluation to the patent examiners. The technical nature of patent evaluation due to its diverse fields has in certain instances resulted to the grant and refusal of patents based primarily on the form of the patent rather than the substance. It was found that much of the ambiguity with respect to software parents was based on different interpretations of the term "Software Patent". In our jurisdiction the software patent we allow is akin to the "Computer Implemented Inventions" as defined under the European Patent Commission, rather than the broad definition used by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The Framework extents the current evaluation process by adding industry and academe in the evaluation of patents with respect to the novelty and non-obviousness, these two aspects of patent evaluation, which used to be performed simply by searching existing patent databases, can now be evluated by those who are more knowledgeable in the field, and are in a better position to know whether the same is novel and non-obvious. The addition of this stage will prevent the issuance of improvident patents or patenting of already widely used inventions known only to the academic and industry players.