BLOG@IP::JUR

Patent Attorney Axel H Horns' Blog on Intellectual Property Law.

Disclaimer & About This Website

Visit the archives

Friday, December 07, 2007

EPO Revokes Patent For "Electronic Ordering System"

The EPO just has distributed a press release via e-mail:

"Press release

EPO revokes patent for "electronic ordering system"

Munich, 7 December 2007 -- The European Patent Office (EPO) has revoked the US firm Amazon's patent relating to a "method for placing an order via a computer system" after a hearing in opposition proceedings. Having heard all of the parties, the opposition division handling the case concluded today that the invention did not meet the patentability requirements under the European Patent Convention (EPC). The patent had been opposed by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Informatik, Fleurop and the Foundation for Free Information Infrastructure (FFII).

European patent EP 0927945 was granted on 23 April 2003 and describes a method in a computer system for ordering a gift whereby delivery is co-ordinated by using the recipient's e-mail address. It is based on a divisional application stemming from the application for the famous "1-click" internet purchasing method, already withdrawn by Amazon in June 2001 following the first communication from the EPO's examining division.

[...]

Amazon is entitled to lodge an appeal against the opposition division's decision with a technical board of appeal, an appellate body of the EPO ruling on decisions at second instance."

This patent had been granted during the "hot phase" of the debate on the patentability of computer-implemented inventions. In those days, many politicians, in particular MEPs, got quite irritated about that particular grant, and FFII did exploit all that with significant impact amongst politicians and journalists. Along with others, FFII then filed a Notice of Opposition, and now the EPO Opposition Division has not upheld that very contested patent.

Times are changing. No, they have changed. Today, I guess you most probably would not get such a patent in the first instance. This decision by no means is in itself something like a tidal change but it reflects that such a change has occurred since those wild days at the beginning of this century.

Technorati Tags:

Patents

[Permalink]

FFII has a press release about this at:
http://press.ffii.org/Press_releases/Amazon_patent_fully_revoked%3A_skirmish_victory_for_FFII

/jonas

# posted by

Anonymous : 17 January, 2008 11:48