On 11 December 2015, a Full Bench of the Federal Court of Australia handed down a unanimous judgment in Commissioner of Patents v RPL Central Pty Ltd [2015] FCAFC 177, overturning the decision of the primary judge and finding a computer-implemented method (which the court characterised as a ‘business method’ or ‘scheme’) to be unpatentable subject matter under Australia’s ‘manner of manufacture’ standard.Regular readers of this blog will know that I have been involved in this matter from the outset. I drafted the original patent specification on behalf of Watermark client RPL Central Pty Ltd. I represented the client in guiding it through examination, resulting in its approval and certification by IP Australia. I again represented the client in opposition proceedings, in which we successfully defended against allegations that the invention lacked novelty (raised by the opponent), but went down on the basis that the…
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