Patentability of computer applied inventions in the European patent system

The present study titled 'Patentability of Computer Applied Inventions in the European Patent System' was prepared as a Ph. D. Dissertation under the Ph. D. Programme of Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University, Graduate School of Social Sciences, Department of Private Law. The Republic of Turkey is a contracting state to the Convention on the Grant of European Patents adopted on 05.10.1973. In this respect, the case law and practices of the European Patent Office, which is the implementer of the Convention on the Grant of European Patents, are taken into account by the Turkish Patent and Trademark Office. In the European patent system, the first condition for patenting an invention including a computer programme is that the claim has a technical character. This dissertation examines the requirements and criteria used by the European Patent Office in the assessment of the technical character of computer-implemented inventions. In this respect, the theory of patent law, historical developments related to patent law and the decisions of the European Patent Office are discussed.