EPO’s G1/19 decision has ‘far-reaching’ implications for AI: lawyers
11-03-2021
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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.
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EPO, inventions, Board of Appeal, technical system, Marks & Clerk, simulation, design, patents, inventive step