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...
Classifying resources using a deep network/GOOGLE – T 0874/19 – 6 July, 2022
In this decision, the EPO’s Board of Appeal clarifies that the (previously important) decision T 1227/05 is no longer followed due to the decision of the Enlarged Board of Appeal G1/19. Object of the Invention classifying search engine resources (e.g. a blog) as a spam resource or not a spam...
Sparsely connected neural network/MITSUBISHI – T 702/20 – 7 November 2022
In this decision, the EPO Board of Appeal provides a comprehensive technical and legal overview of a neural network “as such”. Object of the Invention: the application relates to a neural network (NN) apparatus claim 1 differs from the closest prior art in that the different layers of a NN...
Power measurements – T 1892/17 – 27 August 2021
In this case, non-technical features were considered by the opponent to be non-technical as such. The Board argued that the whole scope of the claim should be considered. The claimed subject-matter includes the measurement of power and the allocation of power to consumers. The non-technical features interact with this technical...
Virtual welding – T 2594/17 and T 2607/17 – 20 May 2021
In this case, a system for virtual testing and inspection of a virtual weldment was claimed. The system has, inter alia, no link to a “real” weldment and no technical implementation. Therefore, the non-technical features are not considered for inventive step and the system is not inventive. Object of the...
