Patentability of Signal Claims - CIPO practice notice and In re Nuijten

This past August, the CIPO issued an Office Practice notice regarding the patentability of signal claims.

The notice reflected a change in the CIPO's position on this topic, stating that "electromagnetic and acoustic signals are forms of energy and do not contain matter even though the signal may be transmitted through a physical medium". Accordingly, signal claims would no longer be considered patentable.

Furthermore, the Federal Circuit in the U.S. yesterday released its decision In re Nuijten, which dealt with similar issues and held that signal claims per se are not patentable, notwithstanding the fact that the court found that the claims at issue required some physical carrier of information to be present. The decision can be found here.

Stay tuned for more updates on this topic...