Japan Software-related inventions are patentable. To qualify as an invention, however, there must be "a creation of technical ideas utilizing a law of nature" although this requirement is typically met by "concretely realising the information processing performed by the software by using hardware resources". Software-related inventions may be considered obvious if they involve the application of an operation known in other fields, the addition of a commonly known means or replacement by equivalent, the implementation in software of functions which were previously performed by hardware, or the systematisation of known human transactions.
Japan Software-related inventions are patentable. To qualify as an invention, however, there must be "a creation of technical ideas utilizing a law of nature" although this requirement is typically met by "concretely .realising the information processing performed by the software by using hardware resources". Software-related inventions may be considered obvious if they involve the application of an operation, known in other fields, the addition of a commonly known means or replacement by equivalent the implementation in software of functions which were previously performed by hardware, or the systematisation of known human transactions