Delhi HC Dismisses BlackBerry Patent Appeal: Colour-Coding Email Recipients Not Patentable Under Section 3(k) as Computer Programme Per Se
The Delhi High Court has dismissed BlackBerry's long-pending patent appeal, holding that an invention for colour-coding email recipients based on domain names does not constitute a patentable "technical effect" and falls squarely within the exclusion for computer programmes per se under Section 3(k) of the Patents Act, 1970. The Court also upheld the Controller's finding of lack of inventive step in view of three prior art documents. I. Background and the Invention BlackBerry Limited, the Canadian multinational known for its enterprise software and smartphones, filed Indian Patent Application No. 1976/DEL/2008 on 20 August 2008, claiming priority from European Patent Application No. 07117003.9 filed on 21 September 2007. The application was titled "Colour Differentiating a Portion of a Text Message Shown in a Listing on a Handheld Communication Device." The invention addressed a practical problem familiar to smartphone users: on a handheld device wit...