A U.K. appeals court decision is causing confusion over longstanding European regulations that generally forbid granting a patent for a computer program.
At issue is a patent that Symbian Ltd. applied for and that was rejected in July 2007 by the U.K. Intellectual Property Office (IPO). Symbian sought a patent for a system that makes accessing dynamic link libraries -- or files used by more than one application -- more reliable.
The IPO rejected the application, saying that the innovation was computer code, which is not patentable. The Court of Appeals, however, overturned the decision on Tuesday and said the system is patentable.
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