Software Patent - Obviousness

Obviousness

A common objection to software patents is that they relate to trivial inventions. A patent on an invention that many people would easily develop independently of one another should not, it is argued, be granted since this impedes development.

Different countries have different ways of dealing with the question of inventive step and non-obviousness in relation to software patents. Europe uses an 'Inventive step test'; see the Inventive step requirement in Europe and, for instance, T 258/03.