As discussed here, there was some optimism that the High Court of Australia (HCA) would grant leave to appeal to a patent applicant who earlier had a computer-implemented invention found to be non-patentable subject matter by the Full Court of the Federal Court of Australia. The HCA is the highest appellate court in Australia and the opportunity presented by having the appeal heard was to redirect the current thrust of the judgments for computer-implemented inventions emanating from the lower courts.
The HCA has refused leave to the patent applicant to appeal from the earlier decision. This signals that the HCA does not wish to vary the approach being taken by the Federal Court, and that Australian patent applicants and patentees will have to continue to adapt to the law as set out in the more recent Federal Court decisions.
More to follow.
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