May came with seven new decisions in the
EUROPEAN SOFTWARE PATENTS knowledge base relating to graphical
user interfaces, navigation systems, computer games, business
methods, video processing, programming and
cryptography:
Patents for graphical user interfaces
Improvements in
graphical user interfaces are sometimes
difficult to protect with patents when they are closely related to
the presentation of information (which is as such excluded from
patentability).
In one case, however, the Board of Appeal decided that
displaying a 3D bird's eye view map, e.g. in a car navigation
system, and the associated calculation steps are technical and
thus enter into the inventive step assessment. An important finding
was that displaying information in an ergonomically improved manner
is indeed a technical purpose.