Practical Claim Drafting Tips For Computer Implemented Inventions In View Of G1/19

Introduction

The EPO's Enlarged Board of appeal handed down decision G1/19 on 10 March 2021. This decision concerns the patentability of computer simulations under the European Patent Convention (EPC). While primary applicability of this decision is of course to simulation inventions, the Enlarged Board emphasised in the decision that simulations were not to be treated as a special class of computer-implemented invention. This means that the guidance provided in G1/19 can be generalised to all computer-implemented inventions at the EPO.

In brief, one of the main conclusions of G1/19 is that a simulation per se is non-technical and so cannot be the subject of a granted European patent. However, it is possible to get a granted patent that is directed to a use of the simulation where an outcome of the simulation is used in a technical context. For more information on this, see our whitepaper here.