{"id":755,"date":"2019-06-03T12:05:04","date_gmt":"2019-06-03T10:05:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bardehle.com\/europeansoftwarepatents\/?p=755"},"modified":"2021-09-29T19:46:52","modified_gmt":"2021-09-29T17:46:52","slug":"european-software-patents-may-2019-updates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bardehle.com\/europeansoftwarepatents\/european-software-patents-may-2019-updates\/","title":{"rendered":"EUROPEAN SOFTWARE PATENTS May 2019 updates"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

May came with seven new decisions in the EUROPEAN SOFTWARE PATENTS<\/a> knowledge base relating to graphical user interfaces, navigation systems, computer games, business methods, video processing, programming and cryptography:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Patents for graphical user interfaces<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Improvements in graphical user interfaces<\/strong><\/a> are sometimes difficult to protect with patents when they are closely related to the presentation of information (which is as such excluded from patentability).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In one case, however, the Board of Appeal decided that displaying a 3D bird\u2019s eye view map, e.g. in a car navigation system<\/a>, and the associated calculation steps are technical and thus enter into the inventive step assessment. An important finding was that displaying information in an ergonomically improved manner is indeed a technical purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In another decision relating to GUIs in video games<\/strong><\/a>, the European Patent Office granted a software patent on graphical layout aspects of a video game which improved its functional quality. One of the aspects of the invention related to making a possibly concealed indicator clearly visible on a display screen to the user of an interactive video game<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a negative example in the realm of navigation systems<\/strong><\/a>, the European Patent Office refused to grant a patent for a navigation system that can be tailored to a user\u2019s particular wishes<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Business method patents<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In one recent decision, the Board of Appeal considered a method for determining a reference reading from a load cell of a cash till<\/a> as technical and remitted the case back to the examining division. The Board emphasized the basic principle that a computer-implemented method may have a technical character provided that the method is functionally limited to a technical purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

By the way, if you are interested in a deeper look into how the European Patent Office examines software-related inventions, this 30-minute video gives a concise overview of the “two hurdle” approach with lots of examples<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Patents for audio \/ video \/ image processing<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Just recently, the European Patent Office granted a software patent on improving the recognition of songs or background music in a video<\/a> by using closed-captioning data for determining an audio segment that is relatively free of interference. The Board held that improving the recognition of songs or background music is a technical problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Programming<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The act of programming<\/strong><\/a> in itself is regularly regarded to be a mental activity devoid of technical character. In this decision, several method steps for generating a parallel computation graph were found to be non-technical, since the mere potential for a speed-up by parallelization of a computer program<\/a> is not sufficient for arguing a \u201cfurther\u201d technical effect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cryptography<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Although normally based on mathematical concepts, inventions in the field of applied cryptography<\/strong><\/a> are regularly allowed by the European Patent Office. For example, in this case the Board of Appeal considered a mathematical method of masking a private key<\/a> technical. More precisely, the Board decided that protecting a cryptographic computation against power attacks is a technical problem if, and only if, the computation is actually carried out on hardware and thus open to such attacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Fear of missing out?<\/h2>\n\n\n \n \n
<\/div>\n \n\n