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# Time-stamp: <2010-04-05 13:19:45 phm>

lab = EPC 52
tit = Art 52 EPC: Interpretation and Revision
sut = Patentability in the European Patent Convention
des = The limits of what is patentable which were laid down in the European Patent Convention of 1973 have been eroded over the years.  Influential patent courts have interpreted Art 52 in a way that renders it obscure and meaningless.  Not all courts have followed this interpretation, and numerous law scholars have shown why it is not permissible.
intro1a = The EPO had accepted the inconsistencies in anticipation of an expected change of law.
intro1b = However this expectation was frustrated in 2000 by the governments and in 2003 by the European Parliament.
intro1c = The Parliament voted for a clarification which gives Art 52 back its meaning.
intro1d = Meanwhile, proponents from all sides have proposed to modify Art 52(3) EPC in one or the other way, of course while claiming that this merely serves to "clarify the status quo" or to implement a directive which serves this purpose, and, since the European Commission and the Council have not signalled support for the Parliament's approach, there is still no common understanding of which "status quo" we are talking about.
kws = Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure, Logic Patents, intellectual property, industrial property, IP, I2P, immaterial assets, law of immaterial goods, mathematical method, business methods, Rules of Organisation and Calculation, invention, non-inventions, computer-implemented inventions, computer-implementable inventions, software-related inventions, software-implemented inventions, software patent, computer patents, information patents, technical invention, technical character, technicity, technology, software engineering, industrial character, Patentierbarkeit, substantive patent law, Nutzungsrecht, patent inflation, quelloffen, standardisation, innovation, competition, European Patent Office, General Directorate for the Internal Market, patent movement, patent family, patent establishment, patent law, patent lawyers, lobby

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