An IPO hearing officer has overruled the examiner’s rejection of an application which relates to a method of developing network software applications for use on cell phones.
Previously this type of technology was developed on the phone itself or on a computer. The hearing officer held that there was a technical contribution and that contribution solved a technical problem, and thus was not software within its normal meaning. The hearing officer also held that the software was not a mere “mental act”. The cumulative effect of which was that the software was patentable.