In this decision, the European Patent Office refused to
grant a software patent on an efficient spam filter. Here are the
practical takeaways of the decision T 2147/16 of September 7, 2021 of
Technical Board of Appeal 3.4.03:
Key takeaways
A further technical effect must be proven and specifically and
sufficiently documented in the disclosure of the invention.
The invention
The Board in charge summarized the invention of the application
underlying the present decision as follows:
2.1 The present invention has as object to provide an efficient
spam filter. Spam messages present the inconvenience of
"cluttering" the user's email box, such that the user
may easily overlook an important message in the flow of numerous
spam messages. Spam messages take up a substantial volume of the
email traffic. The share of spam includes more than 70% of global
mail traffic. The spam messages accumulate in user mail boxes and
take memory space and time to clean out (page 1,