Legislative reform · Armenia · Software patents
Shaping Armenia’s Software Patent Reform
I conceived and drafted the Armenian Bar Association’s 2019 software-patentability proposal and proposed statutory amendment language, and presented the proposal in Yerevan. Its central approach is reflected in Article 12(6) of Armenia’s 2021 Patent Law.
This work brought together my experience as a software engineer and patent attorney to address a practical question: how should patent law recognize inventions implemented through software?
The challenge
A clearer path for software inventions
The Armenian Bar Association’s reform project identified barriers to protecting software-related inventions under Armenia’s existing legal framework. The law excluded computer programs and algorithms “as such,” while implementing rules further constrained protection for software-related methods.
For technology companies, the issue was consequential: whether the legal framework offered a workable path to protect the inventions underlying their products.
The opportunity was to address that question directly in the statutory text.
My contribution
From legal analysis to legislative language
As the working-group lead for Protecting Software, I developed the proposal and drafted the supporting memorandum and proposed amendment language as part of the Armenian Bar Association’s broader IP and corporate-law reform initiative.
The drafting task was to create an express statutory basis for protecting software-related inventions while preserving the law’s substantive patentability requirements.
I consulted an Armenian counterpart during development, traveled to Yerevan, and presented the proposal at the October 2019 summit. There, I worked through the language with Armenian stakeholders as the committee brought its recommendations to participants from government, parliament, legal practice, and industry.
The proposal appears in the Armenian Bar Association’s 2019 IP Protection & Corporate Laws Improvement Report.
The legislative outcome
From proposal to Article 12(6)
The proposal’s central approach was straightforward: an invention involving software or a computer algorithm could qualify for protection when it related to a method and satisfied the other patentability requirements.
Armenia’s 2021 Patent Law expressly addresses that subject in Article 12(6). The provision allows protection for inventions relating to computer algorithms and software when they relate to a process and meet the requirements cross-referenced in Article 12.
| Stage | Approach | Significance |
|---|---|---|
| Before the reform | Software and algorithms excluded “as such,” with implementing rules constraining software-related method claims. | A threshold barrier for software-related inventions. |
| 2019 proposal | Express eligibility for an invention involving software or an algorithm when it relates to a method and meets the other patenting requirements. | A statutory path to protection for qualifying inventions. |
| 2021 Article 12(6) | Protection for inventions relating to computer algorithms and software when they relate to a process and satisfy Article 12(1)–(3). | The proposal’s central approach reflected in the enacted law. |
The Armenian Bar Association’s subsequent account describes the recommendations moving through government review and parliamentary submission, with express protection for software inventions among the reforms incorporated in 2021.
Read Article 12 in the official Patent Law · Read the committee’s 2023 report
The reform journey
From working group to enacted law
- The Armenian Bar Association’s IP and Technology Committee formed. I addressed software patentability and protection strategy for Armenian technology companies at a September CLE program.
- I led the Protecting Software work, developing the proposal and drafting the memorandum and proposed statutory language.
- I presented the proposal in Yerevan and worked through the language with Armenian stakeholders at the committee’s reform summit.
- The recommendations moved through review, translation, and government submission. A Ministry of Economy report cited the committee’s 2019 work.
- Armenia adopted the Law on Patents, including Article 12(6) on inventions relating to computer algorithms and software.
- The law entered into force.
- The committee’s second report described express software protection among the recommendations incorporated into Armenia’s legislation.
Why it matters
Putting software inventions into the statute
The reform placed an affirmative statement about software-related inventions directly into the law. It gave the eligibility question an explicit legislative answer while retaining the requirements an invention must satisfy to receive protection.
That drafting choice is significant in comparative terms. The European Patent Convention addresses computer programs through an exclusion limited by “as such,” with the treatment of computer-implemented inventions developed through doctrine and examination practice. The U.S. statute uses technology-neutral subject-matter categories. Armenia’s Article 12(6) expressly addresses software and algorithms in an affirmative eligibility provision.
European Patent Convention, Article 52 · 35 U.S.C. § 101
For me, this project connected technical understanding, patent practice, legislative drafting, and collaboration across jurisdictions. It was an opportunity to apply the skills I use to protect individual inventions to the legal framework governing an entire category of technology.
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