The position in the UK Dr Ali Al-Alfatlawi

The legal position in the UK The legal position in the UK is that the Patent Act 1977, which is based on the EPC Act, Art 52 (1, 2) has ruled out “a program for a computer” from patentability. It means a CP “as such” is excluded from patent protection.

The judicial position The Court of Appeal has referenced the ‘‘contribution approach” based on four steps ; “(1) properly construe the claim,(2) identify the actual contribution;(3) ask whether it falls solely within the excluded subject matter;(4) check whether the actual or alleged contribution is actually technical in nature”. if the program has the potential to bring about, when running on a computer, a further technical effect which goes beyond the normal physical interactions between the program and the computer” , if the program was for performing a new or improved function on a machine that program would be patentable but if this function is only to be performed on the computer itself, the programme would not be excluded from patentabilit Finally, the UK IPO accepted that “a program that results in a computer running faster or more reliably may be considered to provide a technical contribution even if the invention solely addresses a problem in the programmingy . To sum up, the UK IPO and case law approach goes against conferring patentability on CPs although there were attempts to exclude CPs invention from the patent exclusion. One of the reasons is that a CP as such is an intangible thing and classified as a mental act

Iraqi position The Iraqi Patent and Industrial Models Law No.65 of 1970, as amended in 2004, has granted an invention a patent if that invention is novel, involves an inventive step and is capable of industrial application there are certain exclusions from patentability: 1- Inventions that are contrary to public order and morality are not eligible for patent protection. 2- Methods or means used in financial, banking, or mathematical matters as well as buildings, maps and three-dimensional works are also unpatentable The Iraqi Patent Law is also silent as to whether CPs should be excluded from the domain of patent protection.