IF will provide current accounts, credit cards, personal loans, savings accounts and mortgages. It will use the Intelligent Banking system to connect between the customers’ financial products so as to maximise the interest on their savings or minimise the interest on their borrowings.
IF wants to prevent competitors copying its Intelligent Banking system. Jim Spowart, chief executive of IF, told OUT-LAW.COM that the algorithm used in the coding of the software which calculates the balances on a customer’s accounts is unique, and therefore they have applied for a patent.
In the United States, both software and business methods are eligible for patent protection.
In the UK, however, patents are only granted for new inventions which involve an ‘inventive step’ and which are capable of industrial application. Schemes for doing business and computer programs are specifically excluded from patent protection, although an invention which comprises something else apart from the computer program might be patentable, for example, a production line robot. The normal protection for software in the UK is copyright.
Although IF are not certain that they will succeed in their application, indications are that Europe will soon follow the US approach. Discussions are currently underway to remove the restrictions on the patentability of software and a decision is expected by 2001. Because the application process for a patent is relatively slow, businesses, like IF, which have invented software or business methods may consider applying for patent protection now on the basis that the legal restriction could be removed before the application process has been completed.
For further information on the protection of software, see our guide on Branding and Intellectual Property.
