Japanese Patent Office (JPO) released in February 1997 "Implementing Guidelines for Industrially Applicable Inventions" and "Implementing Guidelines for Computer Software-related Inventions" for the purpose of effective and timely protection of intellectual property rights for the diverse results yielded from vigorous R&D activities in the field of computer software technology, by making it clear that "a computer-readable storage medium having a program recorded thereon"is "statutory"as a "product invention",namely,eligible for patent protection.
In addition to a computer-readable medium such as CD-ROMs, a computer network system has been emerging as a method of distributing a computer program with the recent progress of networking technology and rapid spread of the Internet. Further, as personal computers and the Internet become popular,"business method- related inventions" utilizing known computers and communication technology come to attract attentions from service industries, financial or advertising etc., which have not formerly been interested in the Patent System.
Responding to the above change of technological and social environment, we revise "Implementing Guidelines for Industrially Applicable Inventions" and "Implementing Guidelines for Computer Software-related Inventions" in order to improve the current situations.
We invite public comments on these revised Examination Guidelines as followings. The final version of revised Examination Guidelines will be made based on the public comments. |
