Oracle refused key patent
Link: Oracle refused key patent
Oracle has been refused permission in the UK to patent its method of converting a document from one mark-up language to another, partly because this would give Oracle too much control over sales of computer programs.
The method converted text from SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language) to another mark-up language, such as HTML. Although this conversion could be done by others, a lot of human input was required. Oracle filed for a patent in 2002.
Methods for performing mental acts and computer programs are not patentable in the UK. A patent examiner ruled that Oracle’s invention fell into this category and was not patentable. Oracle appealed against the ruling at a hearing in August and Hearing Officer Stephen Probert published his decision this month.
Oracle argued that its invention was not about computer programming, but about establishing better rules for converting a document from one standard to another. It based its argument on the “little man” test which asks whether an artefact or process is new and non-obvious merely because there is a computer program; or would it still be new and non-obvious if the same decisions and commands could be taken and issued by a little man at a control panel, operating under the same rules? If the little man can do this, then the computer program is merely a tool, and the invention is not about computer programming.
Oracle argued that a little man could convert SGML to HTML by following the procedures in its patent, therefore the patent was not for a computer program.
The Hearing Officer said the little man test was inappropriate because the point of Oracle’s application was as a way of doing something by computer that would take a long time manually.
