From recent EPO case law on the question of patentability of software-related inventions –
The Enlarged Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office recently published the eagerly awaited decision G 1/19, shedding light on the question of how computer-implemented simulations are to be assessed in patent application proceedings.
To anticipate the result: they are to be treated in the same way as other computer-implemented inventions and do not occupy a privileged position among them. No new principles are introduced, known ones are at best refined. Those who are familiar with the COMVIK principles established in T 0641/00 and who are able to recognize the decisions T 1227/05 and the referring T 0489/14 as extreme examples for more liberal or stricter grants, respectively, will probably come to at least reasonable results in the evaluation of the patentability of the subject matter even without reading G 1/19.
Does that make G 1/19 any less worth reading? Not at all. It contains a readable, condensed, yet thorough discussion of the relevant case law on the limits of patentability of computer-implemented inventions in general and computer-implemented simulations in particular. Here, even excursions into national case law („Rote Taube“, „Logikverification“) are made, even if these remain superficial. Specialists in computer-implemented inventions will not be able to avoid reading the almost 70-page decision anyway, but also the interested or the generalist in patent law is recommended to read it.