Editing Software patent (section)

===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"<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.jpo.go.jp/tetuzuki_e/t_tokkyo_e/Guidelines/2_1.pdf|title=Examination Guidelines for Patent and Utility Model in Japan (REQUIREMENTS FOR PATENTABILITY)|publisher=jpo.go.jp|pages=1–3|access-date=2009-11-21|archive-date=2011-03-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110323200823/https://www.jpo.go.jp/tetuzuki_e/t_tokkyo_e/Guidelines/2_1.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> although this requirement is typically met by "concretely realising the information processing performed by the software by using hardware resources".<ref>{{citation|url=http://www.jpo.go.jp/tetuzuki_e/t_tokkyo_e/Guidelines/7_1.pdf|title=Examination Guidelines for Inventions for Specific Fields (Computer Software-Related Inventions) in Japan|publisher=Japanese Patent Office|date=April 2005|page=10 (2.2.1)|access-date=2009-11-21|archive-date=2011-03-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110323200910/https://www.jpo.go.jp/tetuzuki_e/t_tokkyo_e/Guidelines/7_1.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{citation|url=http://www.jpo.go.jp/tetuzuki_e/t_tokkyo_e/Guidelines/7_1.pdf|title=Examination Guidelines for Inventions for Specific Fields (Computer Software-Related Inventions) in Japan|publisher=Japanese Patent Office|date=April 2005|pages=16–17 ("Systematization of human transactions")|access-date=2009-11-21|archive-date=2011-03-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110323200910/https://www.jpo.go.jp/tetuzuki_e/t_tokkyo_e/Guidelines/7_1.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>

In 1999, the allowance rate for business method patents at the [[Japan Patent Office]] (JPO) reached an all-time high of roughly 35 percent. Subsequently, the JPO experienced a surge in business method patent filings. This surge was met with a dramatic decrease in the average grant rate of business method patents during the following six years; it lingered around 8 percent between 2003 and 2006 (8 percent is extremely low in comparison to the average of 50 percent across all technical fields). A report from 2012 found that the average grant rate since 2006 for business method patents has risen to the current rate of roughly 25 percent.<ref>{{citation |last=Sugimura |first=Kenji |title=An important market: software patenting in Japan |date=1 October 2012 |url=http://www.worldipreview.com/article/an-important-market-software-patenting-in-japan |publisher=[[World Intellectual Property Review]] |last2=Chen |first2=Rebecca}}</ref>