With the arrival of spring, RESCUECOM has put together five helpful ways to do a spring cleaning on your computer. Nowadays, spring cleaning shouldn’t just pertain to your home and yard ― simple upkeep of your personal computer will provide immediate benefits now and prevent the need for computer repair in the long run. Help yourself today by trying these five easy-to-follow tips, and avoid needing computer support and computer repair in the future.

1. Back up your data.

If you don’t do this regularly, you risk losing something you want to keep, whether it’s family photos, your senior thesis or that work presentation you are delivering Monday morning. Anything can be lost because of a technological breakdown or human error unless you regularly perform backups. Our computer support specialists can work with you today to create a backup of your critical files that. You can store this backup at your location or use RESCUECOM’s secure remote backup solution.

2. Defragment your computer.

Over time and with regular use, files and folders on your computer hard drive break down and become fragmented, causing your computer to slow down or in severe cases to need computer repair. Defragmenting generally improves file retrieval time and overall performance of your system. RESCUECOM can provide the computer support you need to defragment your PC and get it running quickly again.

3. Take out the trash.

It’s crucial ― if you want your PC to keep running smoothly ― to get rid of programs you don’t use anymore. Computer support specialists stress the importance of removing any non-essential program that starts when your computer starts, because those programs slow down the initial boot process. It’s not just programs slowing you down, you should also delete anything you no longer need: temporary files, unnecessary downloaded photos and videos, etc.

4. Update your computer programs.

By updating your programs, they will keep running smoothly and your computer will stay protected. If you aren’t sure how to do this, have a computer support specialist do the work to avoid potential mistakes and the need for computer repair. Either way, whether you do it, or a RESCUECOM Certified Technician does it, make sure to keep your system up to date.

5. Physically clean your computer.

Every so often your PC can use an actual cleaning. Focusing a can of compressed air on the keyboard, fans and other components of your computer can prolong the life of hardware, help system stability and decrease noise. You can perform this computer repair yourself, or turn to RESCUECOM for computer support.

Source:http://news.topwirenews.com/2010/05/04/Computer-Repair-Rescuecom-Releases-Spring-Cleaning-Tips-for-Your-PC_201005046226.html

It is well established that in the UK and Europe, computer programs are not patentable “as such”. However, the application of a computer program may be patentable if it possesses “technical character”.

However, establishing whether a computer program possesses “technical character” can be rather problematic.

Although the UK and European patent offices have been granting patent claims that relate to computer programs for many years, a European Parliament rejected the proposed EC Directive on the Patentability of Computer Implemented Inventions (EC Software Patent Directive) in July 2006, which caused some controversy.

There remains the question, therefore, of whether computer programs are actually patentable in the UK and Europe.

There is a considerable body of case law from the European Patent Office regarding the patentability of computer programs, which is rather contradictory. The UK Court of Appeal noted the contradictions in the Macrossan and Aerotel case (2006). The Court identified two approaches which were taken by the European Patent Office:

- The “technical effect” approach: this involved asking whether the invention as defined in the claim made a technical contribution to the known art – if it did not, the invention was not patentable. This approach was first adopted by the EPO Boards of Appeal in the Vicom/Computer-related invention [1987] case, in the IBM/Text processing (1990) case and in the IBM/Data processor network (1999) case;

- The “any-hardware” approach: this involved asking whether the claim involved the use of or was to a piece of physical hardware, however mundane (whether a computer or a pencil and paper)- f yes, the invention was patentable. This approach was adopted in three cases: Pension Benefits (T 931/95), Hitachi Auction (T 0258/03) and Microsoft/Data transfer (T0424/03).

However, the Court in the Macrossan and Aerotel (2006) case approved a four-step test for patentability, which it said was consistent with what had been decided in previous Court of Appeal cases:

1. Properly construe the claim;

2. Identify the actual contribution;

3. Ask whether the contribution falls solely within excluded subject matter; and

4. Check whether the actual or alleged contribution is actually technical in nature.

This is the approach that UK courts are likely to adopt for the foreseeable future.

The European approach remains unclear and it appears that whether or not inventions involving computer programs are granted the protection of a patent will be decided on a case by case basis.

Source:http://www.lawdit.co.uk/reading_room/room/view_article.asp?name=../articles/7206-Patentability-of-computer-programs.htm