the patent law and the regulations on the protection of computer software. Europe Within European Union member states, the EPO and other national patent offices have issued many patents for inventions involving software since the European Patent Convention (EPC) came into force in the late 1970s. excludes "programs for computers" from patentability (Art. 52(2)) to the extent that a patent application relates to a computer program "as such" (Art. 52(3)). This has been interpreted to mean that any invention that makes a non-obvious "technical contribution" or solves a "technical problem" in a non-obvious way is patentable even if that technical problem is solved by running a computer program. Computer-implemented inventions that only solve a business problem using a computer, rather than a technical problem, are considered unpatentable as lacking an inventive step (see T 258/03). Nevertheless, the fact that an invention is useful in business does not mean it is not patentable if it also solves a technical problem. A summary of the developments concerning patentability of computer programs under the European Patent Convention is given in (see G 3/08) as a response of the Enlarged Board of Appeal to questions filed by the President of the European Patent Office according to . Concerns have been raised that the Unified Patent Court will be much more open to patents generally and software patents in particular. Germany In April 2013, the German Parliament adopted a joint motion "against the growing trend of patent offices to grant patents on software programs". United Kingdom United Kingdom patent law is interpreted to have the same effect as the European Patent Convention such that "programs for computers" are excluded from patentability to the extent that a patent application relates to a computer program "as such". Current case law in the UK states that an (alleged) invention will only be regarded as an invention if it provides a contribution that is not excluded and that is also technical. A computer program implementing a business process is therefore not an invention, but a computer program implementing an industrial process may well be. India In India, a clause to include software patents was quashed by the Indian Parliament in April 2005. However, following publication of the new guidelines on the examination of computer-related inventions on 19 February 2016, the Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade marks accepts applications for software patents, as long as