The Protection of Patent in software and Software-related Inventions: A Comparative Study of Patent Protection Regimes in the United States, the European Union, Japan and Australia
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Abstract
The objective of this academic article is to make a comparative study of software patent among targeted countries and found that the courts and the patent offices of all the countries concerned still hold similar views that “software per se” is not a patentable subject matter and also that an invention having software as its essence is fundamentally related to abstract principles as well as mental activities. Each country, therefore, recites reservations or establish special conditions for the patentability of software-related inventions. In conclusion, the patent-eligibility assessment approaches for software-related inventions of Europe and Japan tend to be less stringent than the approach taken by the United States and Australia patent authorities. This increases the certainty of software patenting processes in the Japanese and European patent systems which seem better prepared for the challenge of fitting AI-related innovation in the framework of contemporary patent law.
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