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INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY OFFICE Of the Czech Republic WWW. UPV. CZ The Business Methods and Software Implementations in the Inventions and the Utility Models in the Czech Republic INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY OFFICE of the Czech Republic Jan Mothejzik, Patent Department

INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY OFFICE Of the Czech Republic The Business Methods and Software Implementations in the Czech Republic JAN MOTHEJZIK About me • Examiner (electro and mechanical department) • Long time experience in computer field, but only a little more than 1 year at the Industrial Property Office of the Czech Republic • Not so well experienced in this branch, as there are not so many cases in the Czech Republic (Small Country) 2

INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY OFFICE Of the Czech Republic The Business Methods and Software Implementations in the Czech Republic JAN MOTHEJZIK Industrial Property Office of the Czech Republic – global statistics Inventions and Patents 4 900 - 900 applications per year (last 10 years falling) from 10 to 90 % domestic (rapid growth) Utility Models 1 100 – 1 400 applications per year (last 10 years) (more than 90% domestic) (Data Source: Annual Report 2009 of the IPO Czech Republic) 3

INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY OFFICE The Business Methods and Software Implementations in the Czech Republic JAN MOTHEJZIK Of the Czech Republic Conditions of protection by the Patents and the Registration of Utility Models in the Czech Republic Basic Czech laws for protection of technical solutions: - Law No. 527/1990 Coll. , on Inventions and Rationalization Proposals, as amended, Very similar to EPC (European Patent Convention). - Law No. 478/1992 Coll. , on Utility Models, as amended § § § 4

INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY OFFICE The Business Methods and Software Implementations in the Czech Republic JAN MOTHEJZIK Of the Czech Republic Number of selected applications in Czech Republic (source: on-line database of Czech Inventions and Utility Models) Criteria of searching: - by keywords in the Title (database, software, business models, business methods, program) Results: - Most of the applications found are in these classes: G 06 F (68), G 05 B (38), G 06 Q (14) Note: All applications in class G 06 Q and its sub-classes are 94 in CZ. 5

INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY OFFICE Of the Czech Republic The Business Methods and Software Implementations in the Czech Republic JAN MOTHEJZIK Number of selected applications in Czech Republic (continued) Tota. I number of applications in CZ database: 385 500 applications since 1919 (Both domestic and foreign) Applications selected by keywords: 163 applications (1960 - 2008) 6

INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY OFFICE The Business Methods and Software Implementations in the Czech Republic JAN MOTHEJZIK Of the Czech Republic Number of selected applications in Czech Republic (continued) Domestic Foreign TOTAL Inventions 95 46 141 Utility Models TOTAL 18 4 22 113 50 163 7

INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY OFFICE The Business Methods and Software Implementations in the Czech Republic JAN MOTHEJZIK Of the Czech Republic Number of selected applications in the CZ divided by status Type of Status New + public Grant Negative Other TOTAL # 18 92 48 5 163 8

INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY OFFICE Of the Czech Republic The Business Methods and Software Implementations in the Czech Republic JAN MOTHEJZIK Number of selected applications in the Czech Republic per year 1 9 6 0 1 9 8 6 2 0 0 0 2 0 0 7 9

INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY OFFICE The Business Methods and Software Implementations in the Czech Republic JAN MOTHEJZIK Of the Czech Republic Number of Applications in EPODOC selected by the same keywords For comparison: ØIn CZ database is 163 Applications ØIn EPODOC database is about 61000 Applications 10

INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY OFFICE The Business Methods and Software Implementations in the Czech Republic JAN MOTHEJZIK Of the Czech Republic Main difficulty in recognizing granted Inventions or Utility Models for registration in section „Business Methods“ and „Software -Implemented“ The Invention must be of „technical character“ but No general definition of „technical“ 11

INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY OFFICE The Business Methods and Software Implementations in the Czech Republic JAN MOTHEJZIK Of the Czech Republic Main difficulty (continued) For instance: ØBusiness model of E-shop system ØBusiness model of Mobile phone shopping system Ø etc. . . 12

INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY OFFICE The Business Methods and Software Implementations in the Czech Republic JAN MOTHEJZIK Of the Czech Republic Main difficulty (continued) Solution: ? ? ? 13

INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY OFFICE The Business Methods and Software Implementations in the Czech Republic JAN MOTHEJZIK Of the Czech Republic Solution for (but not only for) smaller country - Take a part on similar seminars as on this one (e. g. EPO seminar Computer-implemented Inventions, Munich, May 2010) - Study relevant cases in EPO documents - Discuss with colleagues - Have personal opinion (own point of view) 14

INDUSTRIAL PROPERTY OFFICE Of the Czech Republic The Business Methods and Software Implementations in the Czech Republic JAN MOTHEJZIK Thank you for your attention Jan Mothejzik jmothejzik@upv. cz