Patenting Games In UK Undergoes Changes
As a Miami patent attorney with a number of clients having inventions relating to toys and games and interested in patenting overseas, I follow changes to toy and game patents in the U.S. and abroad.
Patenting games in the UK is undergoing changes in procedure. According to a post in out-law.com, the UK Patent Office has declared a change in the manner it will be examining patent applications for the inventions related to games, following a recent court ruling that announced the present practice to be out-dated. The Comptroller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks had confirmed that the Official Ruling will no longer assess the patentability of games, by issuing a Practice Note.
Till date, the Patent Office was dependent on an Official Ruling of 1926 during determining the game-related patent applications. This Ruling denoted that the games are conventionally patentable and are subjected to objections like lack of originality.
The recent case of Shopalotto.com (an online lottery game) has raised the question of traditional patentability. The Court was astonished that the present practice was still dependent on the old ruling. As per the article at out-law.com Mr. Justice Pumfrey went on to say that a 1926 Official Ruling couldn’t be a valid guide to the 1977 Patents Act interpretation.