UK software developers will now have more rights over their projects following a ruling by the Court of Appeal which has brought the UK's approach to software patents in line with the rest of Europe.

UK software developers had experienced more difficulty than other manufacturers in securing exclusive rights over innovations owing to the UK Intellectual Property Office's (IPO) interpretation of the law on software patents being more narrow than that of the European Patent Office (EPO).

But the new court ruling has overturned a decision by the IPO to reject IT firm Symbian's copyright application for a method of accessing data in a computer. The method concerns "dynamic link libraries" and speeds up computer functions.

"The ruling has cleared up a lot of doubts on the terms in which patents can be granted," said William Cook, a partner at law firm Simmons & Simmons. " Before, the law was confusing."

John Collins, a partner at law firm Marks & Clerk, added: "While the details of the IPO and EPO approaches still differ, the interpretation outlined in today's judgement should lead to the same outcome in the majority of cases."