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Indian Patents Office rolls back its guidelines that allowed patenting for software inventions
The Patent Office's decision to roll back its guidelines that allowed software patents in India is being hailed as a big win for domestic startups, which will not have to worry about expensive patent litigation that can potentially stifle innovation in the country. Indian law on granting patents for software became a hot issue among startups, in the past year, after the Indian Patent Office in August interpreted the law to mean that if a software had industrial applications, it could be granted a patent.
The move was opposed by software product companies, activists and other industry folks who saw the decision as detrimental to startups and existing companies who would get entangled in endless litigation for developing a new product.
On February 19, the Patent Office rolled back the decision to allow software patenting for computerrelated inventions (CRI). “The legislature by limiting the scope of patentable subject matter in the field of software wanted our software professionals and industry to innovate and not be stifled by companies holding a stockpile of patents,“ said Prasanth Sugathan, counsel at Software Freedom Law Centre India, which was one of the front runners in the consultations.
According to the February 19 guidelines, the Patent Office has said the following computer-related inventions will be excluded from patenting: “A mathematical or business method or a com puter program per se or algorithms“, “a literary, dramatic, musical or artistic work or any other aesthetic creation whatsoever including cinematographic works and television productions“ and “a mere scheme or rule or method of performing mental act or method of playing game“ and “a presentation of information“.
“At stake was something similar to what Micromax is going through with Ericsson in India. It is this huge litigation about having to pay a royalty... which could have happened to any of these Indian companies that could have killed them. Imagine if Ericsson was selling phones in India, they could have killed Micromax,“ said iPIRT Cofounder Sharad Sharma.
The decision to roll back the software patent guidelines will also give fillip to the government's Makein-India and Startup India initiatives, said Venkatesh Hariharan, iSPIRT member and former head of public policy and government affairs at Google India.
Multinational companies have been lobbying hard for allowing software patenting in India.
“We are disappointed by the revised Patentability Guidelines for Computer Related Inventions issued on February 19, 2016. We are studying the guidelines with care and will continue to work closely with the government to ensure that software inventions continue to be eligible for patent protection,“ said Yolynd Lobo, director (India), BSA, The Software Alliance.
The Economic Times, New Delhi, 24th February 2016

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