There are software patents in EPC countries (which includes EU, UK), but not software patents as such. A sibling noted that USA now requires a real-world effect, that change apparently mirrors the situation under EPC: software here can be patented if it makes a technical contribution, ie it must do something outside of the computer (or something that simulates something outside of a computer! see Halliburton).
What is and isn't technical is largely down to convention and can't be readily reasoned over IME. In the UK you only need to be familiar with about a half-dozen pieces of caselaw to be able to make a pretty good guess.
It's established caselaw that compression is a mathematical method (not patentable); but you can implement that as a computer program (probably not patentable); but you can apply that to image compression (probably patentable, see Vicom).
Any opinions here are my own and do not relate to my employment. This is not legal advice.
What is and isn't technical is largely down to convention and can't be readily reasoned over IME. In the UK you only need to be familiar with about a half-dozen pieces of caselaw to be able to make a pretty good guess.
It's established caselaw that compression is a mathematical method (not patentable); but you can implement that as a computer program (probably not patentable); but you can apply that to image compression (probably patentable, see Vicom).
Any opinions here are my own and do not relate to my employment. This is not legal advice.