News archive for June 2014
All of our news from June 2014
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Alice v CLS Bank: Are Business Methods Mere Abstract Ideas in U.S. Patent Law?
June 2014
On 19th June 2014 the US Supreme Court handed down an eagerly anticipated judgment in the case of Alice Corp. v CLS Bank International (Ruling 13-298). The Alice patents, directed to a computer-implemented financial settlement system, were found to be excluded from patentability as an abstract idea. Implementing the business method on computer hardware does not avoid the exclusion. The scope of the decision is sufficiently narrow that it is unlikely to adversely impact upon software patent-eligibility where there is a genuine underlying technical innovation. However, patents for business methods in the US are likely to be more difficult to obtain and enforce following this decision, bringing the US into closer alignment with European patent law.
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CJEU Strengthens Design Protection in Fashion Sector
June 2014
European Community design law provides that a design (whether registered or not) is to be protected at EU level to the extent that it is new (not made available to the public previously) and has individual character (the overall impression it produces on the informed user differs from that produced by any design which has been made available to the public previously).
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No Copyright Authorisation Required to View Internet Links
June 2014
THE CJEU has ruled that on-screen and cached copies are "temporary copies", so viewing them does not require permission from copyright holders. In April 2013 the UK Supreme referred questions to the CJEU regarding temporary copies, and the application of copyright law to the technical processes involved in viewing copyright material on the internet and the interpretation of Article 5(1) Directive 2001/29/EC on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society.
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