§ Mr. DalyellTo ask the President of the Board of Trade what is his policy towards proposals under the general agreement on tariffs and trade to allow patenting Of the general techniques underlying computer programs, and the patenting of software-related inventions.
§ Mr. Needham[holding answer 7 July 1992]: We welcome the proposals under the GATT agreement to protect computer programs as literary works under the Berne convention, 1971. Copyright protection extends to expressions and not to ideas, procedures, methods of operation or mathematical concepts as such. Since computer programs are treated as literary works in the United Kingdom and they are protected by copy right there is no conflict between the GATT agreement and United Kingdom law and practice. The United Kingdom Patent Office will continue to be able to exclude computer software from patentability.