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INFORMATION FROM THE CONTRACTING / EXTENSION STATES

DE Germany

Judgment of the Bundespatentgericht (Federal Patent Court), dated 21 March 2002

(23 W (pat) 24/00)1

Headword: "Cable harness"

Section 1(2) point 3 and (3) PatG (German Patent Law)

Article 52(2)(c) and (3) EPC

Keyword: "Technical character of computer-implemented manufacturing methods - relevant prior art"

Headnote:

1. The Federal Court of Justice's "Logic verification" decision of 13 December 1999 (GRUR 2000, 498) modified the Court's previous concept of what constitutes technical character, which had been restricted to the direct use of controllable natural forces without the intervention of human mental activity, to render findings based on technical considerations and their implementation in computer programs sufficient to establish the technical character of computer-implemented methods; this modification is not confined to certain technical fields, such as computer chip manufacture for highly-integrated wiring, but rather applies – for example, in the light of Art. 27(1), first sentence, of the TRIPS Agreement – to all technical fields in which technological development calls for the use of corresponding computer programs.

2. Should the characterising instructions for a claimed computer-implemented method provide the solution to a specific technical problem - in this case the industrial production of cable harnesses without the usual construction of a prototype - then such programs are not excluded from patentability even under Section 1(2) point 3 in conjunction with Section 1(3) German Patent Law (see Federal Court of Justice of 17 October 2001, Mitt. 2001, 553 – Search for incorrect strings2).

DE 1/03