The German Federal Supreme Court decides on Protection for Software Patents

In it decision dated April 22, 2010, the German Federal Supreme Court came to the conclusion that a system and method is not excluded from patent protection as a program for a computer when a concrete technical problem is being solved by technical means. In this respect it is sufficient when the operation of a data processing program in order to solve a problem is determined by technical features apart from the data processing equipment or when the solution specifically consists of developing a data processing program in such a way that it relies on the technical features of the data processing equipment (for example, the different properties and capacities of hardware and software components).