🚀 go-pugleaf

In a recent Australian Federal Court decision, the judge took
a very liberal view of what is patentable subject matter and
extended it to the realms of software algorithms.

In I.B.M v. Commissioner of Patents 
handed down on 13 December, 1991 (of which I only have an unreported 
judgement) judge Burchett J. overruled the Patents Office who
had refused to grant the patent claiming it was unpatentable
subject matter in line with the US Freeman Test and subsequent
authorities. 

The patent application (AU 73701/87) based on a US basic
application filed  13 June 1986, Number Unknown) related to 
the use of integer arithmetic to produce improved curves on a screen. 

The Judge felt that so long as the algorithm had some use in
producing a product (including an improved curve on a screen)
then it should form patentable subject matter. This is to be
contrasted with an application for a mathematical algorithm
per se. 



pjt
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Peter Treloar - comp.patents Moderator
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