ARTICLE · 25 AUGUST 2023

Inventive Step At The EPO For AI Inventions – T 2803/18

Keltie LLP

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A necessary step, therefore, when assessing inventive step is to determine which features of a claim contribute to the technical character.

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A necessary step, therefore, when assessing inventive step is to determine which features of a claim contribute to the technical character. Patent applications disclosing inventions including mathematical or computational methods often include a mixture of technical and non-technical features in the claims. Depending on the particular field of invention, the non-technical features may relate to administrative, business, or other abstract aspects of the invention.

At the EPO, inventions including Artificial Intelligence or Machine Learning subject matter are treated in a similar manner to inventions including other types of mathematical methods or algorithms implemented on a computer (see the EPO's Guidelines for Examination (GfE) on AI inventions). The GfE says that "mathematical algorithms may contribute to the technical character of an invention only in so far as they serve a technical purpose".

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