Today one of the Belgian patent information centers got back to me to discuss the state of Channel Intelligence's European patent application. They confirm that the patent is indeed still under examination and that means that it has not even been sent to the local patent offices of each individual country where this patent would apply.

The patent has been under examination for over 7 years and Channel Intelligence has been gradually trying to adapt some of the claims to get it past the examinator. The fact that it is taking this long is a good sign since it means that the patent office never consider it to be into an acceptable state and it already went through several iterations. Also, since this is clearly a software patent, the representative of this Belgian information center confirmed that it will be almost impossible for this patent application to be approved in Europe.

He suggested that I put a comprehensive dossier together with all prior art and detailed explanations about how they invalidate the novelty and inventiveness of the patent. This seems to correspond with what's written in article 115 of the European Patent Convention. The examinator however has no obligation to take this into consideration. At his sole discretion he can decide to use or ignore the information that is sent to him.

However, that's not all. In the very unlikely event that this patent might be accepted in Europe, there's still a 9 month period after the acceptance date where an official protest can be filed. This doesn't have to be done through a lawyer and can simply be coordinated with a local patent office. Such actions however can't be ignored and will have to be examined in detail by the global European Patent Office.

I thus plan on creating this dossier and also publish it on my blog. Anybody that feels strongly against this patent will then be able to use this information to send his or her own letter to the patent office. If we coordinate this correctly, they might not be able to ignore the pressure.

Thanks a lot everyone for all your support. I'm amazed at how friendly and helpful everyone has been so far.