Zusammenfassung von Article 056 EPC für die Entscheidung T1650/23 vom 15.04.2025

In T 1650/23, the invention concerned controlling the display of content items provided by a website or an application. In the system according to the invention, the content of a content item to be displayed is reduced to an amount that enables a user "to understand the target content item within the display duration". According to the board, the distinguishing features related in part to the way information was displayed (i.e. presented) to the user. Presentation of information is as such not patentable under Art. 52(2) and (3) EPC. According to the case law of the Boards of Appeal, presentation of information as such, as non-technical subject-matter, cannot contribute to inventive step. Where a claim refers to an aim to be achieved in a non-technical field, this aim may legitimately appear in the formulation of the problem as part of the framework of the technical problem that is to be solved, in particular as a constraint that has to be met (T 641/00). The appellant had argued that the distinguishing features related to technical concepts directed at determining in advance how and which information to provide in accordance with the display duration. Hence, these features were directed at the internal processing of the claimed information processing system and not at the mere presentation of information. The distinguishing features achieved the technical effect of reducing processing loads, quickly changing the content amount of the target content item, and causing the target content item to be displayed, as was recited in the description. By storing in advance multiple content variants corresponding to possible display durations, the processing was improved. The appellant had further argued that all the distinguishing features contributed to these technical effects, since they were involved in the steps leading to the improved processing. They could thus not be considered to be mere "constraints" included in the objective technical problem. The objective technical problem had to be formulated as how to improve the processing of displaying a target content item, possibly with the addition of "such that it enables the visitor to understand display content thereof" to take into account the board's assessment that the present invention contained a part that was based on non-technical considerations. The board could not recognise any improved processing compared to the conventional prior-art system, since changing the displayed information involved additional processing. The only effect of this additional processing was in the mind of the user, who was presented with different information than in the conventional prior-art system. The concept of the invention was that of displaying, for a display duration below a threshold, a version of the target content item with a reduced content amount that enabled the visitor to visually understand the target content item within the display duration. The versions to be displayed should be "mutually related in display content but mutually different in content amount". This concept of the invention was based on non-technical considerations about a reduction of the cognitive burden of the user. It was thus a non-technical concept that could be included in the formulation of the technical problem. In view of this, the distinguishing features solved the technical problem of modifying the conventional prior-art system to display, for a display duration below a threshold, a version of the target content item with a reduced content amount that enabled the visitor to visually understand the target content item within the display duration. The board held, that the skilled person facing the above formulated technical problem would immediately recognise the need to estimate the display duration and change the version of the target content item to be displayed if the estimated display duration is below a threshold. The board found that this was obvious and the subject-matter not inventive within the meaning of Art. 56 EPC.