Software Patents, 1980′s

October 22, 2008
Intellectual Property News and Interesting Facts

In the 1980s the Supreme Court forced the PTO to change its position. The 1981 case of Diamond v. Diehr provided the first instance in which the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the PTO to grant a patent on an invention even though computer software was utilized.

In that case, the invention related to a method for determining how rubber should be heated in order to be best “cured.” The invention utilized a computer to calculate and control the heating times for the rubber. However, the invention included not only the computer program, but also included steps relating to heating rubber, and removing the rubber from the heat.

The Supreme Court stated that in this case, the invention was not merely a mathematical algorithm, but was a process for molding rubber, and hence was patentable.

This was true even though the only “novel” feature of this invention was the timing process controlled by the computer.