nosoftwarepatents-award

English

Deutsch

Home

Software Patent
of the year 2006

May – Patent 3

EP0445066 – Method of creating polychromatic printing plates

EU-Patent on software (algorithm)
Application to European Patent Office on 28/2/1991 by SCITEX Corporation Ltd. (Israel)
Granted on 11/10/1995
Date of priority: 2/2/1990 (valid no more than until 2/3/2010)
Patent Attorney: Waxweiler, Jean et al Dennemeyer & Associates Sàrl
Patent specifications provided by FFII/Gauss
Patent specifications provided by EPO/espacenet

Advice on the reading of patent specifications:

The decisive element are the claims, as they specify which actions are forbidden within the framework of the patent.
Violating one single claim is sufficient to be considered a patent violation. Generally, claim number 1 is the decisive main claim which covers all other claims relating to special cases.
The description is intended to help the reader interpret the claim. At the same time, it is supposed to document and disclose the details of the invention. This disclosure is the original purpose of the entire patent system.
In practice, a patent specification contains no detailed information on how the patented procedure could be implemented (even if the patent owner allowed the implementation). In particular, a software patent contains no program code (reference implementation), but merely describes the idea of a software.

Patented idea: Separation of the clashing colour surfaces of the foto before creating the printing plates.This method which is known as trapping has belonged for several decades to the standard methods of polychromatic printing. It is patented the idea to execute digitally the trapping of fotos.

Main claim: Separate the clashing colour surfaces of a foto if permitted by the circumstances (colour types, luminance difference)

Further claims:

To determine the exact position of the separating line on the basis of broader criteria (colour types, total of luminances)
Special case: if the circumstances do not impose otherwise, place the separating line in the middle between the colour surfaces
Special cases: special colour combinations (white, black, basic colours, special colours)

Description: The patent specifications describe an algorithm (out of the many possible) for the execution of the trapping of a foto. But not this concrete algorithm is patented, but the whole idea of digital trapping which in turn represents an indispensable intermediate stage for the creation of polychromatic printing plates by means of a foto.

Everyday life parallel: If upon "painting by numbers" one does not have time to leave the colours get dry before continuing the painting, one can observe upon completing the painting an as small as possible interspace to the separating line in order to avoid the blurring of the colours. This infringes the main claim. Who tries to hide the above-mentioned modification as much as possible, painting for example with black up to the separating line and executing with yellow a broader interspace, infringes the further claims.

Examples of patent infringement: Any software for the preparation of fotos for the creation of polychromatic plates infringes the patent – even when there is used another, self-developed algorithm in place of the algorithm described in the patent specifications.

Previous Patent