Sources and Characteristics of Software Patents in the European Union: Some Empirical Considerations

Software patenting in the United States has been a relevant and well regulated phenomenon since the 1980s. On the contrary, the European Union lagged behind for a long time. This work gives an account of the above mentioned topic. The fact that European Patent Convention expressively prohibits software patenting has not been a major problem for firms and inventors who have patented it as well. First of all, a reliable database of software...