The Jerusalem District Court has upheld an appeal by a patent applicant against refusal of the Patent Office to grant a patent for a helicopter control system that involved use of a computer program to reduce fuel consumption depending upon the flying conditions. While holding that computer programs per se and mere mental acts are not patentable, the Court held that an invention comprising both physical components and computer software which interacted with the physical components should be patentable if it led to distinct discernable and novel results. A factor that seemed to influence the Judge in his decision was that the same invention had already been patented in the United States, Europe, and Canada.