G 1/19: a major decision from the EPO Enlarged Board on the patentability of computer simulations

The EPO has clarified the patentability of computer-implemented inventions—and it’s good news, explain Tim Watkin and Lara Sibley of Marks & Clerk.

On March 10, the European Patent Office’s (EPO) Enlarged Board of Appeal published its keenly-anticipated decision G 1/19 on computer-implemented simulations.

G 1/19 holds that the EPO’s existing approach for assessing the patentability of computer-implemented inventions (CIIs) should indeed be used to assess computer simulation inventions. According to this approach, whether a claim has inventive step is assessed using only any features of the claim which contribute to the claim’s “technical character”.

In contrast to a leading earlier case, G 1/19 holds that it is not decisive whether a technical or a non-technical system or process is simulated. Simulation of a technical system is not necessarily technical.