It results in a bundle of national/ However, inventions which are regional designs. implemented by running computer software on a conventional hardware Patent protection system to produce an added Patents are IPRs which are granted ‘technical effect’ are potentially for product or process inventions protectable by patents, subject which are technical in subject matter. to the other requirements that this In Europe and the UK, patents are is new and inventive etc. These granted for inventions which are new, are often referred to as computer and which are inventive compared implemented inventions. to technology which has gone Some patents have been granted in before (known as prior art). They Europe which protect games in their must also be capable of industrial capacity as computer implemented application and the invention must inventions. An example is a football not fall within a category of subject computer game in which the nearest matter excluded by statute from teammate is displayed using a guide patentability. Excluded subject mark on the edge of the screen when matter is considered further below. that teammate is offscreen. This has A patent is a monopoly right granted the patentable technical effect of in a particular territory (or territories) displaying a particular area of the which generally lasts for 20 years. field while drawing attention to an important area outside it – enabling Patents in Europe, including the continuing user-machine interaction. UK, are not available to protect computer programs, presentations of Computer-implemented invention information, mathematical methods patents are regularly granted by the or algorithms ‘as such’. Similarly, European Patent Office, but since they are not available for rules and such patents can be challenged methods for performing mental acts, separately in each country where playing games or doing business. they are in force, whether a particular All of these are excluded from computer-implemented invention patentability by statute. can or can’t be covered by a patent 130