Tag: G06Q

Ephemeral group chat/SNAP – T 1959/20 – 9 November 2023

In this decision, the Board used non-technical features to formulate the technical object (in line with COMVIK). The Board then went on to explain why the implementation of non-technical requirements of a prior art system appears non-obvious, but is not non-obvious (see the last two bullet points).

Object of the Invention:

  • the invention concerns the implementation of an “ephemeral group chat”, that is, a chat whose messages are automatically deleted when a certain condition is met (for example, when a message has been viewed for a certain amount of time by all recipients)
  • how to implement the requirement of deleting all copies of a chat message based on the occurrence of an event in all client devices, such as the message having been read by all participants

Board (part I):

  • the feature of deleting all copies of a message after it has been read by all recipients is not based on technical considerations
  • nor does it solve a technical problem
  • the mentioned feature is a non-technical requirement expressing a user’s wish or subjective preference
  • non-technical features do not contribute to inventive step but may instead appear in the formulation of the technical problem, in particular as constraints or requirements to be achieved (T 641/00)

Appellant:

  • the condition to simultaneously delete a message for all participants when a trigger event had occurred at all recipient devices is not part of the problem to be solved
  • this has a technical effect, namely increasing security and maintaining data consistency across all devices
  • the technical problem to be solved was rather “how to coordinate the deletion of messages so that there is increased security and consistency“

Board (part II):

  • security of the system is not credibly increased
  • it could equally well be argued that security is decreased
  • achieving consistency of the contents of the various chat messages is not a technical effect
  • implementation of the non-technical requirements: since this cannot be achieved through the independent deletion of the messages disclosed in D1, the skilled person would have to look for a workable solution and, would consider managing the deletion operations centrally by means of the server as one of the obvious possibilities
  • implementation of nontechnical requirements on a technical prior art system might require modifications which, at first glance, appear non-obvious, as there is no technical reason for them in view of the prior art alone
  • however, since according to the principles of “Comvik” non-technical features cannot contribute to inventive step, the nontechnical requirements must be seen as a given, and the skilled person implementing them must make the necessary modifications to the prior art

Estimating airborne photovoltaic energy production/BOEING – T 1035/18 – 2 November 2021

This EPO’s Board of Appeal decision concerns a method for estimating energy savings due to solar cells on an aeroplane. The features of the method do not make a technical contribution, in particular since no further technical use is (implicitly) claimed for the determined energy savings.

Object of the Invention

  • estimating the electrical energy production of a photovoltaic system of an aircraft in flight

Appellant (part I):

  • method steps simulated the performance of a photovoltaic system under realistic conditions

Board (part I):

  • whether a simulation contributes to the technical character does not depend on the degree to which the simulation represents reality (G1/19, point 111)
  • nor does it depend on the technicality of the simulated system (G1/19, point 120)
  • whether the simulation achieves a technical effect depends on the further use of the numerical data of the simulation (G 1/19, point 124)

Appellant (part II):

  • technical effect is the further use of the predicted amount of electrical energy, namely translating this amount into estimated fuel savings
  • estimating the savings in pounds of fuel, i.e. in terms of weight, was a technical feature

Board (part II):

  • estimating the fuel savings for a flight is a nontechnical administrative activity

Appellant (part III):

  • estimated fuel savings imply a more precise estimation of the amount of fuel needed by the aircraft for a flight
  • this is a technical effect because refuelling the aircraft with the optimal amount of fuel would enable the aircraft to traverse the flight path more efficiently

Board (part III):

  • refuelling is a technical process, but it is not a direct consequence of the estimated fuel savings but would only occur as a result of a human decision (see also G 1/19, point 123)
  • the estimated fuel savings can also be used for business decisions, such as whether the savings merit the production and installation of the photovoltaic system or whether they permit a reduction of the flight tickets’ prices
  • the estimations do not have an implied technical use that can be the basis for an implied technical effect (see also G 1/19, points 98, 128)

Appellant (part IV):

  • subject matter describes accurate model for predicting the solar irradiance at a plurality of geographical points
  • the accurate model led to a more precise estimation of the fuel savings
  • according to G 1/19, point 111, the accuracy of a simulation might be taken into consideration in the assessment of inventive step

Board (part IV):

  • the simulation’s accuracy might play a role in the assessment of inventive step only if the simulation contributes to the technical character of the invention

Conclusion

The below figure shows according to G 1/19, point 85 and 86 how and when “technical effects” or “technical interactions” based on inter alia non-technical features may occur in the context of a computer-implemented process. In this decision T 1035/18 the software/ non-technical features do not contribute to the technical character of the invention via the output data. Therefore, the non-technical features are not considered for the assessment of inventive step.