Providing An Interactive Seat Map By Building An Overlay: Technical

The application underlying the discussed decision concerns a method for providing an interactive seat map showing the locations of available tickets in an event venue, built at a client computer using a base map, a coded image map, and ticket inventory data received from a network-based system. The decisive feature was the implementation of the interactive seat map by building an overlay on top of a raster graphics base map using an HTML coded image map, as opposed to using vector graphics technologies like Adobe Flash. The Board of Appeal considered this implementation choice to involve technical considerations, leading to remittal of the case for further search and prosecution.

Here are the practical takeaways from the decision: T 0133/21 (Interactive seat map/STUBHUB) of 2 July 2024, of the Technical Board of Appeal 3.5.01.