A Study on Software Related Patentability Issues

• Main Author: 林金東
• Other Authors: 陳起行
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2009
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/23392294751508850466

碩士 === 國立政治大學 === 法學院碩士在職專班 === 97 === After years of debates over the patentability of software related patent, the first software related patent was finally allowed in the United States in 1981. And in 1998, the Federal Circuit decided in State Street case that the software patent is patentable if it passes the test, namely, to produce “useful, concrete and tangible (UCT) result.” However, in 2008, the Federal Circuit reasoned in Bilski case that it would be inadequate to adopt that test in the future, and decided not to use it any longer. While focusing on the subject matter of patentability issues, the Microsoft v AT & T case is being selected herewith for its full scale debates over the essence of software tangibility. Although the Supreme Court held that Microsoft's conduct falls outside 35 USC 271(f)'s compass would be resolved by the presumption against extraterritoriality, the holding also revealed that Congress might have included within 271(f)'s compass “information, instructions, or tools from which those components readily may be generated.” It did not. This thesis aims to deliberate on the patentability of software related patent, primarily on the applicability, concreteness and tangibility of the software patent. The author wishes to provide a comprehensible scenario on the patentability of software related patent through analysis and comparison of the subject matters presented in the context of the thesis.