Intellectual Property Office approves software patent for UK

"Moving on to steps 3 and 4 [of the four-step Aerotel/Macrossan test], what I must now do is decide whether that contribution falls solely in excluded matter," said Bartlett in his ruling. "In doing that I will specifically address the question “is the contribution technical?” as [the] Symbian [ruling] dictates I must."

In the Symbian case Lord Neuberger found that the invention was not just a better computer program but turned the machine it ran on into "a better and faster computer". It therefore made a technical contribution.

"In my view, the particular way that the present invention overcomes the technical problems inherent in the prior art provides a technical contribution," ruled Bartlett. "Thus whilst the invention may be implemented in software it provides a technical contribution such that it is more than a program for a computer as such."

"I have found that the invention defined in the claims of the present invention makes a technical contribution and is not excluded [from being patented]," said Bartlett.