Software-Related Patents:
The Netherlands
copyright 1997 Donald M. Cameron , Aird & Berlis
Contents
Statutes
The Dutch Patent Act conforms to Article 52 of the EPC and excludes from patentable subject matter pure mathematical algorithms, educational systems, financial systems and computer programs. In order to be capable of patent protection in the Netherlands, an invention must have industrial applicability.
Regulations
There are no regulations that deal specifically with the patentability of software.
Case Law
The Board of Appeals of the Netherlands Patent Office held in 1970 (BIE 1971,54) that computer programs as such are not patentable subject matter.
In September 1985, the Appeal Division of the Dutch Patent Office held in Octroolraad, Afdeling van Beroep (BIE 1985,435) that there is a patentable distinction between computer programs as such contained on different media on the one hand and computer programs loaded into the ram of a computer capable of being executed. When loaded, the computer program determined the operation of the computer. If the program was new, then the computer as programmed is a new machine just as if the logic structure had been executed in hardware.
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