Visae Patentes

The most impressive fireworks of this year were already lit in April at the Icelandic glacier Eyjafjallajökull (Photo (C) 2010 via Wikimedia under the terms of a CC license).

The year is nearly over, the time for statistics has come. The following are my 10 most popular blog postings in 2010:

1. "Software per se" as New post-Bilski Ground of Rejection (ex Parte Proudler)
2. EPO Enlarged Board of Appeal found Referral on Computer-Implemented Inventions Inadmissible  (G 3/08)
3. Former President of German Patent Bar Critically Comments on  European Patent System
4. New Proposal for EU Patent Language Regime by Belgian Presidency
5. Software Patenting in Developed Software-Producing Countries
6. Double Patenting is Possible According to the EPC (T 1423/07)
7. Computer Program Claim not Excluded from Patentability under EPC (T 979/06)
8. Bilski's Business Method Rejected but Software Remains Patent Eligible (Bilski v. Kappos) 
9. Decision of Federal Court of Justice on Software-Implemented Invention Controversially Discussed (BGH Xa ZB 20/08, "Dynamic Document Generation")
10. EPO Tightens Information Disclosure Requirements 

Without doubt, the three most important issues of 2010 from the view point of this blog were the opinion on referral G 3/08 of the EPO Enlarged Board of Appeal in May, the opinion Bilski v. Kappos of the US Supreme Court in July, and the political development of the EU patent especially in the last third of the year. Further important topics related to EPO patent practise and case law and to software-implemented inventions in general.

I thank you very much for your continued interest in my postings in the past year and wish you a happy and prosperous year 2011.