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How about SAP? Aren't they a European company where software patents have no legal force? Do they fill patents for the US too?
by arendtio 8y ago
How about SAP? Aren't they a European company where software patents have no legal force? Do they fill patents for the US too?
- jacques_chester 8y agoEurope has software patents but (this was the advice given to me) the bar to obtain one is very high. Otherwise you may apply for patents in any country that has them. And indeed you need to file in each country where you want protection.
- adamt 8y agoIt's not entirely true that in Europe that software patents don't exist. From: https://fsfe.org/campaigns/swpat/swpat.en.html https://fsfe.org/campaigns/swpat/swpat.en.html "The European Patent Convention states that software is not patentable. But laws are always interpreted by courts, and in this case interpretations of the law differ. So the European Patents Office (EPO) grants software patents by declaring them as "computer implemented inventions". " There's 20,000 hits for a Google patent search for patents assigned to SAP (https://patents.google.com/?assignee=SAP+SE+ https://patents.google.com/?assignee=SAP+SE+)
- arendtio 8y agoThanks for clarifying. While I kinda expected SAP to have some software patents, I didn't know that software patents or 'computer implemented inventions' were still a thing in Europe.
- dfox 8y agoWhat that quoted sentence means is that you can file for a software patent with EPO and it will usually be granted. Implication by omission from that is that resulting patent is essentially unenforceable in the EU.
- AndyNemmity 8y agoSAP files patents in the US.