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A judgment in the case of Symbian’s Patent Application has been issued by the High Court overturning an earlier decision of the UK Intellectual Property Office (UK-IPO) to refuse the application because it relates to nothing more than a computer program.

Symbian’s patent application describes how in a computer a library of functions (DLL), which can be called on by multiple application programs running on the computer, is accessed. In particular, it provides a way of indexing these library functions to ensure the computer will continue to operate reliably after changes are made to the library.

In his judgment Mr Justice Patten observes that the UK-IPO’s decision in this case illustrates the divide which exists between the UK-IPO and the European Patent Office (EPO) about how the patentability of inventions involving computer programs is assessed. This is because although the UK-IPO refused Symbian’s patent application, the EPO has granted Symbian a patent for its invention.

The UK-IPO believes that when deciding whether this computer implemented invention is patentable, Mr Justice Patten did not apply the so-called “Aerotel/Macrossan test”, which was established by the Court of Appeal in an earlier case, in the way intended by the Court of Appeal. This in UK-IPO’s view has created uncertainty about how the Aerotel/Macrossan test should be applied for inventions of this type.

The UK-IPO will therefore appeal this judgment with a view to seeking clarification from the Court of Appeal. Pending a decision by the Court of Appeal, the UK-IPO will be continuing to follow the practice, set out in its Practice Notices issued in November 2006 and February 2008, which are founded on the established Aerotel /Macrossan test. When applying this test, the UK-IPO will take account of the Symbian judgment in appropriate cases.

What is patentable in the UK is determined by the Patents Act 1977 which is aligned with the European Patent Convention (EPC). Among other things, this states that patents are not available for computer programs as such. Thus, whilst it is possible to get patents in the UK for some inventions involving computer programs, it is not possible to get patents for innovations which are solely computer programs, such as an improved word processing program.

The way that the UK-IPO decides if an invention is patentable is different from that used by the EPO. The two approaches should generally give the same answer.

As with all High Court decisions the Symbian judgment is binding on the UK-IPO until such time as it is overtaken by the judgment of the Court of Appeal.

IBM which lobbied Congress, the White House, the Federal Communications Commission, Federal Trade Commission and numerous other agencies, spent about $3.9 million in the first six months of 2007 to lobby on largely the same issues.

IBM recently filed a protest of a $1 billion biometrics database contract the FBI awarded to Lockheed Martin Corp. which built and maintains the agency’s current fingerprint database. The Government Accountability Office has until June 4 to rule on the protest.

Railroad operator Norfolk Southern Corp. spent $3.1 million to lobby the federal government in 2007, according to a disclosure form.

The company lobbied on various appropriations bills and on legislation dealing with climate change, energy issues, terrorism risk insurance and more. Norfolk Southern also opposed legislation that would subject railroads to stiffer antitrust standards. The antitrust bill has the support of a coalition of more than 3,500 electric, utility, chemical and manufacturing companies.

The Norfolk, Va.-based company spent nearly $1.6 million in the second half of 2007 to lobby on those issues, according to the form posted online Feb. 13 by the Senate’s public records office.

Besides Congress, Norfolk Southern lobbied the Federal Railroad Administration and the Transportation Department.

The Armonk, N.Y.-based company spent $3.9 million in the second half of 2007 to lobby the federal government, according to a disclosure form posted online Feb. 13 by the Senate’s public records office. It also lobbied on electronic personal health records, international tax treaties, defense spending, math and science educational standards, energy issues and other matters.

Lobbyists are required to disclose activities that could influence members of the executive and legislative branches, under a federal law enacted in 1995.

Table data source: Global Wind Energy Council - 2006 report

The above table pattern of development shows that new players such as Portugal and China are gaining ground.

What could be the reason?
Some facts from China:
According to a a reported invterview, Vestas Chief Executive Officer Ditlev Engel played down the market share drop, saying an additional $750 million of projects expected to come online in the first half of 2008 would help to counteract the slip. “We’ve been surprised by how fast new entrants have entered the market. Yet since 2006, we have invested more than €1 billion ($1.5 billion) in organic growth,” he says.

The main challenge has come in China where local firms, such as Sinovel and Goldwind, have taken advantage of a Chinese government push to increase renewable generation from 7% of total energy production to 15% by 2020. That has led to an explosion of activity from both local and international players, such as General Electric (GE) and Siemens (SI). Vestas, for example, increased the number of wind farms delivered to Chinese clients by 20% last year, compared to 2006. But Chinese firms have increased their local orders, taking a bite out of Vestas’ share of the market.

Despite the slip, analysts reacted favorably to the Danish company’s results, which included a 26% increase in annual revenues, to $7.3 billion, and operating margins that grew almost four percentage points year-over-year, to 9.1% in 2007. According to forecasts from Vestas, revenue should hit $8.5 billion in 2008, while operating profit is expected to increase 10% to 12% by year end.

A look at intellectual property creation in wind power domain:

IP creation from across the globe:

Top companies in IP creation:

Wind power patent distribution based on technology: