Welcome to the GaussProject. There is currently much debate in Europe regarding SoftwarePatents in the light of the EU SoftwarePatentDirective and continued pressure to legitimize the EPO software patents dispite strong opposition. Motivated by this debate, we have build a Database of patent documents to document the current practice of granting patents on software in Europe.
Participation
Our Sponsors are very popular, to become one, please contact gauss-help AT ffii.org.
This is a wiki, i.e. site were everybody can contribute. If you want to contribute with pages, ideas, patents, questions or comments either get an account, or be a GaussGuest. If you have any ideas about to improve this wiki please add them to IdeaCollection.
For questions on usage or about Gauss in general please see QuestionsAndAnswers. If you are interested in contributing to the project look at some ProjectProposals, if you have found bugs please Contact us.
Services
Statistics. An example of the statistics we can generate is who is Top 10 applicants for software patents at the EPO.
Search. Search our database for patent documents matching particular criteria.
Browse. Browsing patent information, e.g. how many software patents there are in various ECLA classes, or just look at 20 random patents.
TextSearch. To Search the patents in full text.
Examples
A method for fulfilling requests of a web browser. This is a software patent covering CGI scripts.
Method and system for placing a purchase order via a communications network. Amazons patent on ordering gifts on the internet.