Computer software is an essential resource for database marketers, with a wide variety of products available with increasingly sophisticated functionality. However, some database marketers and the software companies that supply them may not have considered the extent to which such software products can be protected as patented inventions. This issue has been the subject of much debate in recent years, and has led to various high-profi le cases in both the English Patents Courts and the European

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... Patent Offi ce. This paper looks at the current state of play and assesses whether we are any closer to knowing what is patentable and what is not.