Skip to main content Skip to footer
HomeHome
 
  • Homepage
  • Searching for patents

    Patent knowledge

    Access our patent databases and search tools.

    Go to overview 

    • Overview
    • Technical information
      • Overview
      • Espacenet - patent search
      • European Publication Server
      • EP full-text search
    • Legal information
      • Overview
      • European Patent Register
      • European Patent Bulletin
      • European Case Law Identifier sitemap
      • Third-party observations
    • Business information
      • Overview
      • PATSTAT
      • IPscore
      • Technology insight reports
    • Data
      • Overview
      • Technology Intelligence Platform
      • Linked open EP data
      • Bulk data sets
      • Web services
      • Coverage, codes and statistics
    • Technology platforms
      • Overview
      • Plastics in transition
      • Water innovation
      • Space innovation
      • Technologies combatting cancer
      • Firefighting technologies
      • Clean energy technologies
      • Fighting coronavirus
    • Helpful resources
      • Overview
      • First time here?
      • Asian patent information
      • Patent information centres
      • Patent Translate
      • Patent Knowledge News
      • Business and statistics
      • Unitary Patent information in patent knowledge
    Image
    Plastics in Transition

    Technology insight report on plastic waste management

  • Applying for a patent

    Applying for a patent

    Practical information on filing and grant procedures.

    Go to overview 

    • Overview
    • European route
      • Overview
      • European Patent Guide
      • Oppositions
      • Oral proceedings
      • Appeals
      • Unitary Patent & Unified Patent Court
      • National validation
      • Request for extension/validation
    • International route (PCT)
      • Overview
      • Euro-PCT Guide – PCT procedure at the EPO
      • EPO decisions and notices
      • PCT provisions and resources
      • Extension/validation request
      • Reinforced partnership programme
      • Accelerating your PCT application
      • Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH)
      • Training and events
    • National route
    • Find a professional representative
    • MyEPO services
      • Overview
      • Understand our services
      • Get access
      • File with us
      • Interact with us on your files
      • Online Filing & fee payment outages
    • Forms
      • Overview
      • Request for examination
    • Fees
      • Overview
      • European fees (EPC)
      • International fees (PCT)
      • Unitary Patent fees (UP)
      • Fee payment and refunds
      • Warning

    UP

    Find out how the Unitary Patent can enhance your IP strategy

  • Law & practice

    Law & practice

    European patent law, the Official Journal and other legal texts.

    Go to overview 

    • Overview
    • Legal texts
      • Overview
      • European Patent Convention
      • Official Journal
      • Guidelines
      • Extension / validation system
      • London Agreement
      • National law relating to the EPC
      • Unitary patent system
      • National measures relating to the Unitary Patent
    • Court practices
      • Overview
      • European Patent Judges' Symposium
    • User consultations
      • Overview
      • Ongoing consultations
      • Completed consultations
    • Substantive patent law harmonisation
      • Overview
      • The Tegernsee process
      • Group B+
    • Convergence of practice
    • Options for professional representatives
    Image
    Law and practice scales 720x237

    Keep up with key aspects of selected BoA decisions with our monthly "Abstracts of decisions”

  • News & events

    News & events

    Our latest news, podcasts and events, including the European Inventor Award.

    Go to overview 

     

    • Overview
    • News
    • Events
    • European Inventor Award
      • Overview
      • About the award
      • Categories and prizes
      • Meet the finalists
      • Nominations
      • European Inventor Network
      • The 2024 event
    • Young Inventors Prize
      • Overview
      • About the prize
      • Nominations
      • The jury
      • The world, reimagined
      • The 2025 event
    • Press centre
      • Overview
      • Patent Index and statistics
      • Search in press centre
      • Background information
      • Copyright
      • Press contacts
      • Call back form
      • Email alert service
    • Innovation and patenting in focus
      • Overview
      • Water-related technologies
      • CodeFest
      • Green tech in focus
      • Research institutes
      • Women inventors
      • Lifestyle
      • Space and satellites
      • The future of medicine
      • Materials science
      • Mobile communications
      • Biotechnology
      • Patent classification
      • Digital technologies
      • The future of manufacturing
      • Books by EPO experts
    • "Talk innovation" podcast

    Podcast

    From ideas to inventions: tune into our podcast for the latest in tech and IP

  • Learning

    Learning

    The European Patent Academy – the point of access to your learning

    Go to overview 

    • Overview
    • Learning activities and paths
      • Overview
      • Learning activities
      • Learning paths
    • EQE and EPAC
      • Overview
      • EQE - European qualifying examination
      • EPAC - European patent administration certification
      • CSP – Candidate Support Programme
    • Learning resources by area of interest
      • Overview
      • Patent granting
      • Technology transfer and dissemination
      • Patent enforcement and litigation
    • Learning resources by profile
      • Overview
      • Business and IP managers
      • EQE and EPAC Candidates
      • Judges, lawyers and prosecutors
      • National offices and IP authorities
      • Patent attorneys and paralegals
      • Universities, research centres and technology transfer centres (TTOs)
    Image
    Patent Academy catalogue

    Have a look at the extensive range of learning opportunities in the European Patent Academy training catalogue

  • About us

    About us

    Find out more about our work, values, history and vision

    Go to overview 

    • Overview
    • The EPO at a glance
    • 50 years of the EPC
      • Overview
      • Official celebrations
      • Member states’ video statements
      • 50 Leading Tech Voices
      • Athens Marathon
      • Kids’ collaborative art competition
    • Legal foundations and member states
      • Overview
      • Legal foundations
      • Member states of the European Patent Organisation
      • Extension states
      • Validation states
    • Administrative Council and subsidiary bodies
      • Overview
      • Communiqués
      • Calendar
      • Documents and publications
      • Administrative Council
    • Principles & strategy
      • Overview
      • Our mission, vision, values and corporate policy
      • Strategic Plan 2028
      • Towards a New Normal
    • Leadership & management
      • Overview
      • President António Campinos
      • Management Advisory Committee
    • Sustainability at the EPO
      • Overview
      • Environmental
      • Social
      • Governance and Financial sustainability
    • Services & activities
      • Overview
      • Our services & structure
      • Quality
      • Consulting our users
      • European and international co-operation
      • European Patent Academy
      • Chief Economist
      • Ombuds Office
      • Reporting wrongdoing
    • Observatory on Patents and Technology
      • Overview
      • Technologies
      • Innovation actors
      • Policy and funding
      • Tools
      • About the Observatory
    • Procurement
      • Overview
      • Procurement forecast
      • Doing business with the EPO
      • Procurement procedures
      • Sustainable Procurement Policy
      • About eTendering and electronic signatures
      • Procurement portal
      • Invoicing
      • General conditions
      • Archived tenders
    • Transparency portal
      • Overview
      • General
      • Human
      • Environmental
      • Organisational
      • Social and relational
      • Economic
      • Governance
    • Statistics and trends
      • Overview
      • Statistics & Trends Centre
      • Patent Index 2024
      • EPO Data Hub
      • Clarification on data sources
    • History
      • Overview
      • 1970s
      • 1980s
      • 1990s
      • 2000s
      • 2010s
      • 2020s
    • Art collection
      • Overview
      • The collection
      • Let's talk about art
      • Artists
      • Media library
      • What's on
      • Publications
      • Contact
      • Culture Space A&T 5-10
      • "Long Night"
    Image
    Patent Index 2024 keyvisual showing brightly lit up data chip, tinted in purple, bright blue

    Track the latest tech trends with our Patent Index

 
en de fr
  • Language selection
  • English
  • Deutsch
  • Français
Main navigation
  • Homepage
    • Go back
    • New to patents
  • New to patents
    • Go back
    • Your business and patents
    • Why do we have patents?
    • What's your big idea?
    • Are you ready?
    • What to expect
    • How to apply for a patent
    • Is it patentable?
    • Are you first?
    • Patent quiz
    • Unitary patent video
  • Searching for patents
    • Go back
    • Overview
    • Technical information
      • Go back
      • Overview
      • Espacenet - patent search
        • Go back
        • Overview
        • National patent office databases
        • Global Patent Index (GPI)
        • Release notes
      • European Publication Server
        • Go back
        • Overview
        • Release notes
        • Cross-reference index for Euro-PCT applications
        • EP authority file
        • Help
      • EP full-text search
    • Legal information
      • Go back
      • Overview
      • European Patent Register
        • Go back
        • Overview
        • Release notes archive
        • Register documentation
          • Go back
          • Overview
          • Deep link data coverage
          • Federated Register
          • Register events
      • European Patent Bulletin
        • Go back
        • Overview
        • Download Bulletin
        • EP Bulletin search
        • Help
      • European Case Law Identifier sitemap
      • Third-party observations
    • Business information
      • Go back
      • Overview
      • PATSTAT
      • IPscore
        • Go back
        • Release notes
      • Technology insight reports
    • Data
      • Go back
      • Overview
      • Technology Intelligence Platform
      • Linked open EP data
      • Bulk data sets
        • Go back
        • Overview
        • Manuals
        • Sequence listings
        • National full-text data
        • European Patent Register data
        • EPO worldwide bibliographic data (DOCDB)
        • EP full-text data
        • EPO worldwide legal event data (INPADOC)
        • EP bibliographic data (EBD)
        • Boards of Appeal decisions
      • Web services
        • Go back
        • Overview
        • Open Patent Services (OPS)
        • European Publication Server web service
      • Coverage, codes and statistics
        • Go back
        • Weekly updates
        • Updated regularly
    • Technology platforms
      • Go back
      • Overview
      • Plastics in transition
        • Go back
        • Overview
        • Plastics waste recovery
        • Plastics waste recycling
        • Alternative plastics
      • Innovation in water technologies
        • Go back
        • Overview
        • Clean water
        • Protection from water
      • Space innovation
        • Go back
        • Overview
        • Cosmonautics
        • Space observation
      • Technologies combatting cancer
        • Go back
        • Overview
        • Prevention and early detection
        • Diagnostics
        • Therapies
        • Wellbeing and aftercare
      • Firefighting technologies
        • Go back
        • Overview
        • Detection and prevention of fires
        • Fire extinguishing
        • Protective equipment
        • Post-fire restoration
      • Clean energy technologies
        • Go back
        • Overview
        • Renewable energy
        • Carbon-intensive industries
        • Energy storage and other enabling technologies
      • Fighting coronavirus
        • Go back
        • Overview
        • Vaccines and therapeutics
          • Go back
          • Overview
          • Vaccines
          • Overview of candidate therapies for COVID-19
          • Candidate antiviral and symptomatic therapeutics
          • Nucleic acids and antibodies to fight coronavirus
        • Diagnostics and analytics
          • Go back
          • Overview
          • Protein and nucleic acid assays
          • Analytical protocols
        • Informatics
          • Go back
          • Overview
          • Bioinformatics
          • Healthcare informatics
        • Technologies for the new normal
          • Go back
          • Overview
          • Devices, materials and equipment
          • Procedures, actions and activities
          • Digital technologies
        • Inventors against coronavirus
    • Helpful resources
      • Go back
      • Overview
      • First time here?
        • Go back
        • Overview
        • Basic definitions
        • Patent classification
          • Go back
          • Overview
          • Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC)
        • Patent families
          • Go back
          • Overview
          • DOCDB simple patent family
          • INPADOC extended patent family
        • Legal event data
          • Go back
          • Overview
          • INPADOC classification scheme
      • Asian patent information
        • Go back
        • Overview
        • China (CN)
          • Go back
          • Overview
          • Facts and figures
          • Grant procedure
          • Numbering system
          • Useful terms
          • Searching in databases
        • Chinese Taipei (TW)
          • Go back
          • Overview
          • Grant procedure
          • Numbering system
          • Useful terms
          • Searching in databases
        • India (IN)
          • Go back
          • Overview
          • Facts and figures
          • Grant procedure
          • Numbering system
        • Japan (JP)
          • Go back
          • Overview
          • Facts and figures
          • Grant procedure
          • Numbering system
          • Useful terms
          • Searching in databases
        • Korea (KR)
          • Go back
          • Overview
          • Facts and figures
          • Grant procedure
          • Numbering system
          • Useful terms
          • Searching in databases
        • Russian Federation (RU)
          • Go back
          • Overview
          • Facts and figures
          • Numbering system
          • Searching in databases
        • Useful links
      • Patent information centres (PATLIB)
      • Patent Translate
      • Patent Knowledge News
      • Business and statistics
      • Unitary Patent information in patent knowledge
  • Applying for a patent
    • Go back
    • Overview
    • European route
      • Go back
      • Overview
      • European Patent Guide
      • Oppositions
      • Oral proceedings
        • Go back
        • Oral proceedings calendar
          • Go back
          • Calendar
          • Public access to appeal proceedings
          • Public access to opposition proceedings
          • Technical guidelines
      • Appeals
      • Unitary Patent & Unified Patent Court
        • Go back
        • Overview
        • Unitary Patent
          • Go back
          • Overview
          • Legal framework
          • Main features
          • Applying for a Unitary Patent
          • Cost of a Unitary Patent
          • Translation and compensation
          • Start date
          • Introductory brochures
        • Unified Patent Court
      • National validation
      • Extension/validation request
    • International route
      • Go back
      • Overview
      • Euro-PCT Guide
      • Entry into the European phase
      • Decisions and notices
      • PCT provisions and resources
      • Extension/validation request
      • Reinforced partnership programme
      • Accelerating your PCT application
      • Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH)
        • Go back
        • Patent Prosecution Highway (PPH) programme outline
      • Training and events
    • National route
    • MyEPO services
      • Go back
      • Overview
      • Understand our services
        • Go back
        • Overview
        • Exchange data with us using an API
          • Go back
          • Release notes
      • Get access
        • Go back
        • Overview
        • Release notes
      • File with us
        • Go back
        • Overview
        • What if our online filing services are down?
        • Release notes
      • Interact with us on your files
        • Go back
        • Release notes
      • Online Filing & fee payment outages
    • Fees
      • Go back
      • Overview
      • European fees (EPC)
        • Go back
        • Overview
        • Decisions and notices
      • International fees (PCT)
        • Go back
        • Reduction in fees
        • Fees for international applications
        • Decisions and notices
        • Overview
      • Unitary Patent fees (UP)
        • Go back
        • Overview
        • Decisions and notices
      • Fee payment and refunds
        • Go back
        • Overview
        • Payment methods
        • Getting started
        • FAQs and other documentation
        • Technical information for batch payments
        • Decisions and notices
        • Release notes
      • Warning
    • Forms
      • Go back
      • Overview
      • Request for examination
    • Find a professional representative
  • Law & practice
    • Go back
    • Overview
    • Legal texts
      • Go back
      • Overview
      • European Patent Convention
        • Go back
        • Overview
        • Archive
          • Go back
          • Overview
          • Documentation on the EPC revision 2000
            • Go back
            • Overview
            • Diplomatic Conference for the revision of the EPC
            • Travaux préparatoires
            • New text
            • Transitional provisions
            • Implementing regulations to the EPC 2000
            • Rules relating to Fees
            • Ratifications and accessions
          • Travaux Préparatoires EPC 1973
      • Official Journal
      • Guidelines
        • Go back
        • Overview
        • EPC Guidelines
        • PCT-EPO Guidelines
        • Unitary Patent Guidelines
        • Guidelines revision cycle
        • Consultation results
        • Summary of user responses
        • Archive
      • Extension / validation system
      • London Agreement
      • National law relating to the EPC
        • Go back
        • Overview
        • Archive
      • Unitary Patent system
        • Go back
        • Travaux préparatoires to UP and UPC
      • National measures relating to the Unitary Patent 
    • Court practices
      • Go back
      • Overview
      • European Patent Judges' Symposium
    • User consultations
      • Go back
      • Overview
      • Ongoing consultations
      • Completed consultations
    • Substantive patent law harmonisation
      • Go back
      • Overview
      • The Tegernsee process
      • Group B+
    • Convergence of practice
    • Options for professional representatives
  • News & events
    • Go back
    • Overview
    • News
    • Events
    • European Inventor Award
      • Go back
      • Overview
      • About the award
      • Categories and prizes
      • Meet the inventors
      • Nominations
      • European Inventor Network
        • Go back
        • 2024 activities
        • 2025 activities
        • Rules and criteria
        • FAQ
      • The 2024 event
    • Young Inventors Prize
      • Go back
      • Overview
      • About the prize
      • Nominations
      • The jury
      • The world, reimagined
      • The 2025 event
    • Press centre
      • Go back
      • Overview
      • Patent Index and statistics
      • Search in press centre
      • Background information
        • Go back
        • Overview
        • European Patent Office
        • Q&A on patents related to coronavirus
        • Q&A on plant patents
      • Copyright
      • Press contacts
      • Call back form
      • Email alert service
    • In focus
      • Go back
      • Overview
      • Water-related technologies
      • CodeFest
        • Go back
        • CodeFest Spring 2025 on classifying patent data for sustainable development
        • Overview
        • CodeFest 2024 on generative AI
        • CodeFest 2023 on Green Plastics
      • Green tech in focus
        • Go back
        • Overview
        • About green tech
        • Renewable energies
        • Energy transition technologies
        • Building a greener future
      • Research institutes
      • Women inventors
      • Lifestyle
      • Space and satellites
        • Go back
        • Overview
        • Patents and space technologies
      • Healthcare
        • Go back
        • Overview
        • Medical technologies and cancer
        • Personalised medicine
      • Materials science
        • Go back
        • Overview
        • Nanotechnology
      • Mobile communications
      • Biotechnology
        • Go back
        • Overview
        • Red, white or green
        • The role of the EPO
        • What is patentable?
        • Biotech inventors
      • Classification
        • Go back
        • Overview
        • Nanotechnology
        • Climate change mitigation technologies
          • Go back
          • Overview
          • External partners
          • Updates on Y02 and Y04S
      • Digital technologies
        • Go back
        • Overview
        • About ICT
        • Hardware and software
        • Artificial intelligence
        • Fourth Industrial Revolution
      • Additive manufacturing
        • Go back
        • Overview
        • About AM
        • AM innovation
      • Books by EPO experts
    • Podcast
  • Learning
    • Go back
    • Overview
    • Learning activities and paths
      • Go back
      • Overview
      • Learning activities: types and formats
      • Learning paths
    • EQE and EPAC
      • Go back
      • Overview
      • EQE - European Qualifying Examination
        • Go back
        • Overview
        • Compendium
          • Go back
          • Overview
          • Paper F
          • Paper A
          • Paper B
          • Paper C
          • Paper D
          • Pre-examination
        • Candidates successful in the European qualifying examination
        • Archive
      • EPAC - European patent administration certification
      • CSP – Candidate Support Programme
    • Learning resources by area of interest
      • Go back
      • Overview
      • Patent granting
      • Technology transfer and dissemination
      • Patent enforcement and litigation
    • Learning resources by profile
      • Go back
      • Overview
      • Business and IP managers
        • Go back
        • Overview
        • Innovation case studies
          • Go back
          • Overview
          • SME case studies
          • Technology transfer case studies
          • High-growth technology case studies
        • Inventor's handbook
          • Go back
          • Overview
          • Introduction
          • Disclosure and confidentiality
          • Novelty and prior art
          • Competition and market potential
          • Assessing the risk ahead
          • Proving the invention
          • Protecting your idea
          • Building a team and seeking funding
          • Business planning
          • Finding and approaching companies
          • Dealing with companies
        • Best of search matters
          • Go back
          • Overview
          • Tools and databases
          • EPO procedures and initiatives
          • Search strategies
          • Challenges and specific topics
        • Support for high-growth technology businesses
          • Go back
          • Overview
          • Business decision-makers
          • IP professionals
          • Stakeholders of the Innovation Ecosystem
      • EQE and EPAC Candidates
        • Go back
        • Overview
        • Paper F brain-teasers
        • Daily D questions
        • European qualifying examination - Guide for preparation
        • EPAC
      • Judges, lawyers and prosecutors
        • Go back
        • Overview
        • Compulsory licensing in Europe
        • The jurisdiction of European courts in patent disputes
      • National offices and IP authorities
        • Go back
        • Overview
        • Learning material for examiners of national officers
        • Learning material for formalities officers and paralegals
      • Patent attorneys and paralegals
      • Universities, research centres and TTOs
        • Go back
        • Overview
        • Modular IP Education Framework (MIPEF)
        • Pan-European Seal Young Professionals Programme
          • Go back
          • Overview
          • For students
          • For universities
            • Go back
            • Overview
            • IP education resources
            • University memberships
          • Our young professionals
          • Professional development plan
        • Academic Research Programme
          • Go back
          • Overview
          • Completed research projects
          • Current research projects
        • IP Teaching Kit
          • Go back
          • Overview
          • Download modules
        • Intellectual property course design manual
        • PATLIB Knowledge Transfer to Africa
          • Go back
          • Core activities
          • Stories and insights
  • About us
    • Go back
    • Overview
    • The EPO at a glance
    • 50 years of the EPC
      • Go back
      • Official celebrations
      • Overview
      • Member states’ video statements
        • Go back
        • Albania
        • Austria
        • Belgium
        • Bulgaria
        • Croatia
        • Cyprus
        • Czech Republic
        • Denmark
        • Estonia
        • Finland
        • France
        • Germany
        • Greece
        • Hungary
        • Iceland
        • Ireland
        • Italy
        • Latvia
        • Liechtenstein
        • Lithuania
        • Luxembourg
        • Malta
        • Monaco
        • Montenegro
        • Netherlands
        • North Macedonia
        • Norway
        • Poland
        • Portugal
        • Romania
        • San Marino
        • Serbia
        • Slovakia
        • Slovenia
        • Spain
        • Sweden
        • Switzerland
        • Türkiye
        • United Kingdom
      • 50 Leading Tech Voices
      • Athens Marathon
      • Kids’ collaborative art competition
    • Legal foundations and member states
      • Go back
      • Overview
      • Legal foundations
      • Member states
        • Go back
        • Overview
        • Member states by date of accession
      • Extension states
      • Validation states
    • Administrative Council and subsidiary bodies
      • Go back
      • Overview
      • Communiqués
        • Go back
        • 2024
        • Overview
        • 2023
        • 2022
        • 2021
        • 2020
        • 2019
        • 2018
        • 2017
        • 2016
        • 2015
        • 2014
        • 2013
      • Calendar
      • Documents and publications
        • Go back
        • Overview
        • Select Committee documents
      • Administrative Council
        • Go back
        • Overview
        • Composition
        • Representatives
        • Rules of Procedure
        • Board of Auditors
        • Secretariat
        • Council bodies
    • Principles & strategy
      • Go back
      • Overview
      • Mission, vision, values & corporate policy
      • Strategic Plan 2028
        • Go back
        • Driver 1: People
        • Driver 2: Technologies
        • Driver 3: High-quality, timely products and services
        • Driver 4: Partnerships
        • Driver 5: Financial sustainability
      • Towards a New Normal
      • Data protection & privacy notice
    • Leadership & management
      • Go back
      • Overview
      • About the President
      • Management Advisory Committee
    • Sustainability at the EPO
      • Go back
      • Overview
      • Environmental
        • Go back
        • Overview
        • Inspiring environmental inventions
      • Social
        • Go back
        • Overview
        • Inspiring social inventions
      • Governance and Financial sustainability
    • Procurement
      • Go back
      • Overview
      • Procurement forecast
      • Doing business with the EPO
      • Procurement procedures
      • Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) publications
      • Sustainable Procurement Policy
      • About eTendering
      • Invoicing
      • Procurement portal
        • Go back
        • Overview
        • e-Signing contracts
      • General conditions
      • Archived tenders
    • Services & activities
      • Go back
      • Overview
      • Our services & structure
      • Quality
        • Go back
        • Overview
        • Foundations
          • Go back
          • Overview
          • European Patent Convention
          • Guidelines for examination
          • Our staff
        • Enabling quality
          • Go back
          • Overview
          • Prior art
          • Classification
          • Tools
          • Processes
        • Products & services
          • Go back
          • Overview
          • Search
          • Examination
          • Opposition
          • Continuous improvement
        • Quality through networking
          • Go back
          • Overview
          • User engagement
          • Co-operation
          • User satisfaction survey
          • Stakeholder Quality Assurance Panels
        • Patent Quality Charter
        • Quality Action Plan
        • Quality dashboard
        • Statistics
          • Go back
          • Overview
          • Search
          • Examination
          • Opposition
        • Integrated management at the EPO
      • Consulting our users
        • Go back
        • Overview
        • Standing Advisory Committee before the EPO (SACEPO)
          • Go back
          • Overview
          • Objectives
          • SACEPO and its working parties
          • Meetings
          • Single Access Portal – SACEPO Area
        • Surveys
          • Go back
          • Overview
          • Detailed methodology
          • Search services
          • Examination services, final actions and publication
          • Opposition services
          • Formalities services
          • Customer services
          • Filing services
          • Key Account Management (KAM)
          • Website
          • Archive
      • Our user service charter
      • European and international co-operation
        • Go back
        • Overview
        • Co-operation with member states
          • Go back
          • Overview
        • Bilateral co-operation with non-member states
          • Go back
          • Overview
          • Validation system
          • Reinforced Partnership programme
        • Multilateral international co-operation with IP offices and organisations
        • Co-operation with international organisations outside the IP system
      • European Patent Academy
        • Go back
        • Overview
        • Partners
      • Chief Economist
        • Go back
        • Overview
        • Economic studies
      • Ombuds Office
      • Reporting wrongdoing
    • Observatory on Patents and Technology
      • Go back
      • Overview
      • Technologies
        • Go back
        • Overview
        • Innovation against cancer
        • Assistive robotics
        • Space technologies
      • Innovation actors
        • Go back
        • Overview
        • Startups and SMEs
          • Go back
          • Overview
          • Publications
        • Research universities and public research organisations
      • Policy and funding
        • Go back
        • Overview
        • Financing innovation programme
          • Go back
          • Overview
          • Our studies on the financing of innovation
          • EPO initiatives for patent applicants
          • Financial support for innovators in Europe
        • Patents and standards
          • Go back
          • Overview
          • Publications
          • Patent standards explorer
      • Tools
        • Go back
        • Overview
        • Deep Tech Finder
      • About the Observatory
        • Go back
        • Overview
        • Work plan
    • Transparency portal
      • Go back
      • Overview
      • General
        • Go back
        • Overview
        • Annual Review 2024
          • Go back
          • Overview
          • Executive summary
          • Driver 1 – People
          • Driver 2 – Technologies
          • Driver 3 – High-quality, timely products and services
          • Driver 4 – Partnerships
          • Driver 5 – Financial Sustainability
        • Annual Review 2023
          • Go back
          • Overview
          • Foreword
          • Executive summary
          • 50 years of the EPC
          • Strategic key performance indicators
          • Goal 1: Engaged and empowered
          • Goal 2: Digital transformation
          • Goal 3: Master quality
          • Goal 4: Partner for positive impact
          • Goal 5: Secure sustainability
        • Annual Review 2022
          • Go back
          • Overview
          • Foreword
          • Executive summary
          • Goal 1: Engaged and empowered
          • Goal 2: Digital transformation
          • Goal 3: Master quality
          • Goal 4: Partner for positive impact
          • Goal 5: Secure sustainability
      • Human
      • Environmental
      • Organisational
      • Social and relational
      • Economic
      • Governance
    • Statistics and trends
      • Go back
      • Overview
      • Statistics & Trends Centre
      • Patent Index 2024
        • Go back
        • Insight into computer technology and AI
        • Insight into clean energy technologies
        • Statistics and indicators
          • Go back
          • European patent applications
            • Go back
            • Key trend
            • Origin
            • Top 10 technical fields
              • Go back
              • Computer technology
              • Electrical machinery, apparatus, energy
              • Digital communication
              • Medical technology
              • Transport
              • Measurement
              • Biotechnology
              • Pharmaceuticals
              • Other special machines
              • Organic fine chemistry
            • All technical fields
          • Applicants
            • Go back
            • Top 50
            • Categories
            • Women inventors
          • Granted patents
            • Go back
            • Key trend
            • Origin
            • Designations
      • Data to download
      • EPO Data Hub
      • Clarification on data sources
    • History
      • Go back
      • Overview
      • 1970s
      • 1980s
      • 1990s
      • 2000s
      • 2010s
      • 2020s
    • Art collection
      • Go back
      • Overview
      • The collection
      • Let's talk about art
      • Artists
      • Media library
      • What's on
      • Publications
      • Contact
      • Culture Space A&T 5-10
        • Go back
        • Catalyst lab & Deep vision
          • Go back
          • Irene Sauter (DE)
          • AVPD (DK)
          • Jan Robert Leegte (NL)
          • Jānis Dzirnieks (LV) #1
          • Jānis Dzirnieks (LV) #2
          • Péter Szalay (HU)
          • Thomas Feuerstein (AT)
          • Tom Burr (US)
          • Wolfgang Tillmans (DE)
          • TerraPort
          • Unfinished Sculpture - Captives #1
          • Deep vision – immersive exhibition
          • Previous exhibitions
        • The European Patent Journey
        • Sustaining life. Art in the climate emergency
        • Next generation statements
        • Open storage
        • Cosmic bar
      • "Long Night"
  • Boards of Appeal
    • Go back
    • Overview
    • Decisions of the Boards of Appeal
      • Go back
      • Overview
      • Recent decisions
      • Selected decisions
    • Information from the Boards of Appeal
    • Procedure
    • Oral proceedings
    • About the Boards of Appeal
      • Go back
      • Overview
      • President of the Boards of Appeal
      • Enlarged Board of Appeal
        • Go back
        • Overview
        • Pending referrals (Art. 112 EPC)
        • Decisions sorted by number (Art. 112 EPC)
        • Pending petitions for review (Art. 112a EPC)
        • Decisions on petitions for review (Art. 112a EPC)
      • Technical Boards of Appeal
      • Legal Board of Appeal
      • Disciplinary Board of Appeal
      • Presidium
        • Go back
        • Overview
    • Code of Conduct
    • Business distribution scheme
      • Go back
      • Overview
      • Technical boards of appeal by IPC in 2025
      • Archive
    • Annual list of cases
    • Communications
    • Annual reports
      • Go back
      • Overview
    • Publications
      • Go back
      • Abstracts of decisions
    • Case Law of the Boards of Appeal
      • Go back
      • Overview
      • Archive
  • Service & support
    • Go back
    • Overview
    • Website updates
    • Availability of online services
      • Go back
      • Overview
    • FAQ
      • Go back
      • Overview
    • Publications
    • Ordering
      • Go back
      • Overview
      • Patent Knowledge Products and Services
      • Terms and conditions
        • Go back
        • Overview
        • Patent information products
        • Bulk data sets
        • Open Patent Services (OPS)
        • Fair use charter
    • Procedural communications
    • Useful links
      • Go back
      • Overview
      • Patent offices of member states
      • Other patent offices
      • Directories of patent attorneys
      • Patent databases, registers and gazettes
      • Disclaimer
    • Contact us
      • Go back
      • Overview
      • Filing options
      • Locations
    • Subscription centre
      • Go back
      • Overview
      • Subscribe
      • Change preferences
      • Unsubscribe
    • Official holidays
    • Glossary
    • RSS feeds
Board of Appeals
Decisions

Recent decisions

Overview
  • 2025 decisions
  • 2024 decisions
  • 2023 decisions
  1. Home
  2. T 1125/17 (Parallelizing computation graphs/AB INITIO) 02-04-2019
Facebook X Linkedin Email

T 1125/17 (Parallelizing computation graphs/AB INITIO) 02-04-2019

European Case Law Identifier
ECLI:EP:BA:2019:T112517.20190402
Date of decision
02 April 2019
Case number
T 1125/17
Petition for review of
-
Application number
04777236.3
IPC class
G06F 9/44
Language of proceedings
EN
Distribution
NO DISTRIBUTION (D)

Download and more information:

Decision in EN 391.55 KB
Documentation of the appeal procedure can be found in the European Patent Register
Bibliographic information is available in:
EN
Versions
Unpublished
Application title

COMPUTER-AIDED PARALLELIZING OF COMPUTATION GRAPHS

Applicant name
Ab Initio Technology LLC
Opponent name
-
Board
3.5.06
Headnote
-
Relevant legal provisions
European Patent Convention Art 56 1973
European Patent Convention Art 83 1973
European Patent Convention Art 84 1973
European Patent Convention Art 123(2)
Keywords

Claims clarity

Claims - main and auxiliary requests 1-3 (no)

Sufficiency of disclosure main and auxiliary requests 1-3 (no)

Amendments added subject-matter

Amendments - auxiliary requests 3 and 4 (yes)

Inventive step auxiliary request 5 (no)

Catchword
-
Cited decisions
G 0002/10
T 0288/84
T 0689/90
T 1173/97
T 0641/00
T 1415/07
Citing decisions
T 0517/16

I. The appeal is against the decision of the examining division dated 13 November 2016 to refuse European patent application No. 04 777 236 for lack of clarity, Article 84 EPC 1973, and inventive step, Article 56 EPC 1973, as the mere computer implementation of a purely mathematical method.

II. A notice of appeal was filed on 13 February 2017, the appeal fee being paid on the same day. A statement of grounds of appeal was received on 21 April 2017. The appellant requested that the decision be set aside and a patent be granted on the basis of claims 1-21 according to a main or an auxiliary request as filed with the grounds of appeal.

III. In an annex to a summons to oral proceedings, the board informed the appellant of its preliminary opinion that the claimed invention was deficient under Articles 83, 84 and 56 EPC 1973.

IV. In response to the summons, by letter dated 4 March 2019, the appellant filed new sets of claims 1-17, 1-17, 1-15, 1-15, 1-14 according to a main request and auxiliary requests 1-4, respectively.

V. During the oral proceedings held on 2 April 2019, the claims of the main request were again replaced by amended claims 1-15 and claims 1-3 according to an additional auxiliary request 5.

VI. Claim 1 of the main request reads as follows:

"A computer-implemented method for automated generation, from a user specified computation graph, of a parallel computation graph that specifies the distribution of the computations of the user specified computation graph for parallel execution on a number of separate processors, the parallel computation graph including:

at least a first parallel data processing element representing a plurality of instances of a first data processing element arranged in parallel;

at least a second parallel data processing element representing a plurality of instances of a second data processing element arranged in parallel; and

at least a parallelized inter-component link joining the first parallel data processing element and the second parallel data processing element,

whereby, during execution of the parallel computation graph, each instance of the data processing elements may be hosted on a different processor;

the method including: accepting, by a computer system, a specification of the user specified computation graph in which data processing elements are joined by linking elements, each of the linking elements being associated with a data flow from an associated upstream one of the data processing elements to an associated downstream one of the data processing elements; for each of one or more of the linking elements (205) of the computation graph, that joins an upstream data processing element (210) to a downstream data processing element (240) and for which parallel characteristics are undetermined: determining, by the computer system, data processing characteristics, including a degree of parallelism, of a parallelized inter-component link representing the linking element (205) and configured to process data records with a degree of parallelism, the determining being according to characteristics of the upstream and the downstream data processing elements (210, 240) associated with the linking element (205), including determining data processing characteristics of the parallelized inter-component link based on a data characteristic for data records provided on an output port by the upstream data processing element and for data records received on an input port by the downstream data processing element; and the method further comprising inserting the parallelized inter-component link as a parallel partition element, interconnection network, and a parallel gather element on a data path joining parallel components of the upstream and the downstream data processing elements associated with the linking element." Claim 1 of auxiliary request 1 differs from that of the main request in that the data characteristics are further specified by this phrase: "... the characteristics including one or more input requirements of the downstream data processing element (240) and one or more output requirements of the upstream data processing element (210), ..." and that the last paragraph reads as follows: "... inserting the parallelized inter-component link as at least a data processing element on a data path joining the upstream and the downstream data processing element associated with the linking element, including configuring the parallelized inter-component link according to the data processing characteristics of the linking element."

Claim 1 of auxiliary request 2 differs from that of auxiliary request 1 in that what is laid out as the penultimate paragraph of claim 1 above reads as follows:

"... the determining including determining one or more sort requirements for the data elements processed by the parallelized inter-component link and one or more partitioning requirements for the data elements processed by the parallelized inter-component link based on a data characteristic for data records provided on an output port by the upstream data processing element according to the one or more output requirements of the upstream data processing element and for data records received on an input port by the downstream data processing element according to the one or more input requirements of the downstream data processing element; ..."

Claim of auxiliary request 3 differs from that of auxiliary request 2 in that the following phrase is added to its end:

"... and configuring the parallelized inter-component link for parallel execution on at least two separate processors".

Claim 1 of auxiliary request 4 differs from that of auxiliary 3 in that the inserting step is amended and further steps were added as follows:

"... inserting the parallelized inter-component link, as at least a parallel partition element (221), a parallel gather element (231) and an interconnection network (225), on a data path joining m instances of the upstream data processing element and a n instances of the downstream data processing element associated with the linking element, wherein the parallel partition element (221) is implemented by m instances of a partition element (220), the parallel gather element (231) is implemented by n instances of a gather element (230), and the interconnection network (225) is implemented as a cross-connection of serial links in which every instance of partition element (220) is connected to every instance of gather element (230), the method further including configuring the parallelized inter-component link according to the data processing characteristics of the linking element and configuring the parallelized inter-component link for parallel execution on at least two separate processors;

the method further comprising executing, on a computer system comprising at least two separate processors, the parallel computation graph by:

preparing the graph for execution by performing, on the computer system, graph transformation steps until the graph is in an executable form, and each serial link is associated with at least one communication method compatible with the access methods of the instances of the first and second data processing elements connected by the serial link;

launching each serial link by creating, by means of the computer system, a combination of communication channels and/or data stores, as appropriate to the serial link's communication method; and

launching each data processing element by invoking execution of the process on the computer system."

The beginning of claim 1 of auxiliary request 5 is identical to claim 1 of the main request. From the determining step onwards, it reads as follows:

"... determining, by the computer system, data processing characteristics of a parallelized inter-component link (205) representing the linking element and configured to process data records with a degree of parallelism, the parallelized inter-component link comprising a parallel partition element (221), a parallel gather element (231) and an interconnection network (225), the determining being based on:

the degree of parallelism of the upstream data processing element (m) and the downstream data processing element (n) associated with the linking element;

the characteristics of the output flow from the upstream data processing element (210) associated with the linking element;

the requirements of the input flow of the downstream data processing element associated with the linking elements;

the determining being based on:

metadata associated with the processing elements, the metadata comprising data indicators that indicate whether: if partitioned, the input flow of the processing element must be partitioned according to a particular key or keys; each instance of the component must receive copies of all work elements on its input; and the input flow must be sorted, and the key or keys that define the sort order; and

processing element specific mapping functions that accept the characteristics of each of the input data flows of the components, and produces characteristics for each of the output flows;

wherein:

if m=n, and the input to the downstream data processing element does not need to be partitioned or sorted according to any particular key, and the input flow does not need a copy of each work element, corresponding instances of the upstream and downstream components are connected directly by serial links;

if m is not equal to n and the input flow to the downstream component does not need to be partitioned according to any particular key, and the input flow does not need a copy of each work element, then the partition element of the inter-component link is defined to perform a round-robin distribution;

if the input flow to the downstream component requires the work elements to be partitioned according to a set of keys that is different than the partitioning of the output flow of the upstream component, the partitioning element performs a hash partition according to the required key values; and

if the input flow requires a copy of each work element, then the partition element of the inter-component link is defined to perform a broadcast function;

and

inserting the parallelized inter-component link on a data path joining m instances of the upstream data processing element and a n instances of the downstream data processing element associated with the linking element, wherein the parallel partition element (221) is implemented by m instances of a partition element (220), the parallel gather element (231) is implemented by n instances of a gather element (230), and the interconnection network (225) is implemented as a cross-connection of serial links in which every instance of partition element (220) is connected to every instance of gather element (230),

the method further comprising executing, on a computer system comprising at least two separate processors, the parallel computation graph by distributing the parallel computation graph and performing parallel execution thereof on a number of separate processors."

VII. At the end of the oral proceedings, the chairman announced the decision of the board.

The invention

1. The application generally relates to computation graphs in which the vertices and the links define, respectively, "data processing elements" and the data flow between them (see paragraphs 3, 4 and 7).

1.1 In this context, the application relates to the transformation of "serial computation graphs" into "parallel computation graphs".

1.2 Figure 1A depicts a simple "serial" computation graph in which two components A and B are connected by a single "serial link" (see paragraph 4). It is observed that data may sometimes be processed in parallel by different "instances of individual components" A and B, the possible "degree of parallelism" depending on the "characteristics" of A, B and the connection between them (see paragraphs 5 and 30 but also figure 3, no. 330). Making this parallelism explicit in the computation graph yields a "parallel[ized] computation graph" (see figure 1B, 2A, 2B; paragraphs 4-6, 29, 36 and 37), which can also be represented in "serial form" (see paragraphs 39 and 54).

1.3 The data flow in parallel computation graphs is represented using data flow elements referred to as "partition", "gather" and "interconnection" (see figures 1B and 1C, nos. 115 and 135; figures 2B and 2C, no. 225). Several types of each of these elements are anticipated, depending on the type of computation (see paragraphs 30-32, 35, 49).

1.4 The invention means to propose a procedure for the transformation of serial computation graphs into equivalent parallel ones (see figure 3). The procedure may be able to rely on user annotations, indications or other metadata (see paragraphs 43-49 and 51-52) but may also have to make do without them (paragraphs 64-66).

1.5 The procedure according to figure 3 cycles through the "links" in the given serial graph and determines the required partition, interconnection and gather elements (see paragraph 53).

Clarity, Article 84 EPC 1973, and claim construction

2. The claimed method works by iteration over "linking elements" and "determining" various "data processing characteristics" which were "undetermined" before, in particular, "a degree of parallelism", "input requirements" and "sort requirements".

2.1 Claim 1 of the main request and auxiliary requests 1-4 leaves open how these characteristics are determined. Claim 1 of auxiliary request 5 specifies that the determining is based on "metadata" which, according to the description, may be provided manually by the user, i.e. the programmer (loc. cit.). Although the appellant insisted during oral proceedings that the determination could also rely on sources of information other than user annotations, no further explanations were given on how that was meant to be done. Neither does the description which supports the appellant's argument disclose details in this regard (see paragraphs 64 to 66). Either way, no amended claim 1 was filed containing a pertinent amendment. Therefore, claim 1 of all requests is at least consistent with the assumption that the "determining" step essentially retrieves user-provided metadata from the user-specified graph.

2.2 Claim 1 of the main request and auxiliary requests 1-4 does not define the characteristics to be determined. For instance, the "degree of parallelism" is only defined in claim 1 of auxiliary request 5 which states it to specify the desired number - m and n, respectively - of upstream and downstream processing elements.

2.3 Moreover, claim 1 of the main request and auxiliary requests 1-3 fails to specify what happens with the determined characteristics. The step of "inserting the parallelized inter-component link" is merely said to be "configur[ed] according to the data processing characteristics", but how this is done is not stated.

2.4 This constitutes a lack of essential features and renders claim 1 of the main request and auxiliary requests 1-3 unclear, Article 84 EPC 1973. Moreover, because neither the data processing characteristics nor their use in configuring the parallelized inter-component link are defined, the skilled person would not have been able to carry out the invention in its full breadth, in violation of Article 83 EPC 1973.

Article 123(2) EPC

3. Claim 1 of auxiliary request 3 contains the phrase "configuring the parallelized inter-component link for parallel execution on at least two separate processors". As its basis, the appellant refers to paragraph 20 of the application as filed.

3.1 Apart from the fact that a graph "configur[ed] for parallel execution" is not necessarily executed in parallel, paragraph 20 does not specifically disclose the "parallelized inter-component link" to be distributed but, more generally, the "computations specified by an initial serial [or parallel] computation graph".

3.2 The amendments made to claim 1 of auxiliary request 1 thus do not comply with Article 123(2) EPC.

4. Claim 1 of auxiliary request 4 was amended by incorporation of "features relating specifically to the execution of the resulting parallel computation graph[,] based upon material found in reference document US 5966072" (see page 7 of the letter of 4 March 2019, section entitled "Amendments", paragraph 3). This document is assigned to the present appellant and is mentioned in paragraph 3 of the present application documents as originally filed by the brief statement that "A system that implements such graph-based computation is described in U.S. Patent 5,966,072 EXECUTING COMPUTATIONS EXPRESSED AS GRAPHS".

4.1 It is established jurisprudence of the boards of appeal that an amendment in conformance with Article 123(2) may only be made within the limits of what a skilled person would derive directly and unambiguously, using common general knowledge, and seen objectively and relative to the date of filing, from the whole of these documents as filed" (G 2/10, point 4.3 of the reasons).

4.2 When protection is sought for features which were not expressly disclosed in the application documents as originally filed but were taken from a cross-referenced document, it has further been established to use the criteria defined in T 689/90 (catchword 2). This decision is also mentioned in the appellant's letter of 4 March 2019 (bottom of page 7). During the oral proceedings, the appellant made further reference to T 1415/07 and T 288/84 to support its case.

4.3 In accordance with T 689/90, an amendment based on a feature only described in a cross-referenced document is only allowable "if the description of the invention as filed leaves no doubt to a skilled reader", inter alia, "(a) that protection is or may be sought for such features" and "(c) that such features implicitly clearly belong to the description of the invention contained in the application as filed [...] and thus to the content of the application as filed".

4.4 The application states specifically that the contents of the U.S. Provisional Application of which it claims the benefit is "incorporated [...] by reference" (para­graph 1). This statement means to make the content of the provisional application part of the content of the present one. While it is open to argument which features specifically, if any, are (or can) be made part of the content of an application by way of a generic reference like this, this statement is notably missing from paragraph 3. That is, US 5 966 072 is not stated to be incorporated by reference.

4.5 In compliance with the strict standard regarding added matter (see point 3.1 above), requirement (a) is very stringent. It requires that the description "leaves no doubt to a skilled reader" that protection is or may be sought for the pertinent features. In the words of T 1415/07 (point 19 of the reasons), "it must be unambiguously derivable to the skilled person which features of the application are to be taken from the referenced document". A mere mention of a prior art document as an "example" is normally insufficient to identify which features or groups of features are of particular relevance for the citing application, espe­cially if, as in the case at hand, the cited documents contains 32 pages. Also, absent any express indication in the citing application, the disclosure of the abstract and the summary from which the pertinent features were taken cannot be understood to form part of the content of the citing application (requirement (c)).

4.6 Thus, the brief mention of the U.S. patent 5 966 072 in the application at hand is insufficient to make any specific features disclosed in the mentioned patent part of the content of the application as originally filed.

4.7 The situation underlying T 288/84 does not, in the board's judgment, withstand this finding. In that case, the insertion of a single word into the claims was allowed under Article 123(2) EPC because the underlying concept was disclosed in all examples of the application, albeit without expressly mentioning it by name (see point 6.4 of the reasons). In other words, the board in case T 288/84 essentially decided that it was allowable to insert the name of a particular concept that was, without being named, clearly disclosed.

4.8 In the present case, paragraph 20 discloses that "the computation specified by a serial computation graph can be distributed for parallel execution on a number of separate processors". This statement as such is very broad and does not imply which components of the graph are or might be deployed on separate processors. Furthermore, the general reference in paragraph 3 of the present application to "a system that implements [...] graph-based computation" does not imply, without doubt, that the relevant features in the U.S. patent relate to how a parallel computation graph is distributed for parallel computation.

4.9 As a consequence, in view of the fact that the amendments made to claim 1 of auxiliary request 4 crucially rely on that U.S. patent and with no other basis for the added claim language being given, claim 1 of auxiliary request 4 does not comply with Article 123(2) EPC.

Inventive step, Article 56 EPC 1973

5. The amendments made to claim 1 of auxiliary request 5 specify that it is metadata provided in or with the user-specified computation graph which indicates how many upstream or downstream data processing elements there are (i.e., in the terms of figure 1C, how many As and Bs), whether the input flow to any data processing element must be partitioned or sorted and whether every "instance" of a component must receive a copy of each work element. According to the requirements expressed in the metadata, the sorted-merge element is generated. For instance, if the downstream components expect the input to be partitioned differently to how the output of the upstream component is provided, a "hash partition" element is provided which is disclosed to redistribute the work elements according to the required partitions (see paragraph 32).

5.1 This subject-matter specifies (or, rather, is consistent with the assumption) that all information relevant for the automated generation of the parallel computation graph from the user-specified one is already contained explicitly, in the form of user-provided metadata, in the user-specific graph. In other words, the parallel computation graph contains the same amount of information as the user-specified graph and, at best, represents it in an explicit, expanded form. This interpretation was presented to the appellant during oral proceedings and was not challenged.

5.2 The board takes the view that any actual parallel execution of the parallel computation graph is, in principle, also available for the user-specified graph. Hence, whatever speed-up effect can in principle be achieved by parallelizing one graph is not due to the form of the graph but to the details of the user-specified graphs including its metadata.

5.3 Moreover, it is not evident that the expanded form of the graph, the "parallel" computation graph, is, in general, substantially easier to deploy on parallel hardware than the user-specified graph. Such an argument cannot be used for claim 1 as it stands because specifically how the parallel execution graph is deployed on a given hardware is not claimed.

5.4 Thus, the mapping of one graph to another, which is equivalent to expressing the same computation, is, essentially, a mathematical operation on computation graphs, which does not contribute to the effect of parallelization. The transformation itself therefore does not contribute towards inventive step in accordance with the established jurisprudence of the boards of appeal, see T 641/00 (catchword 1).

5.5 Beyond that, the general idea that a computation graph may be executed on some parallel hardware is known in the art (e.g. from the U.S. patent mentioned in paragraph 3 of the application) and therefore obvious as such.

5.6 The subject-matter of claim 1 of auxiliary request 5 thus lacks inventive step, Article 56 EPC 1973.

Further remark

6. During the oral proceedings, in the context of auxiliary request 4, it was discussed whether the transformation of one computation graph into another, without an explicit mention of the deployment of parallel hardware or the execution on parallel hardware, would have to be accepted as a technical effect on the assumption that the generated computation graph was established as lending itself more easily to parallelization than the given one. Although this question turned out not to be decisive for the case at hand, the appellant encouraged the board to comment on this question in its decision.

6.1 The board stresses that, as argued above, it is not convinced of the argument that the generated parallel computation graph is actually easier to parallelize than the given user-specified graph. For this reason alone, the following comment is strictly obiter.

6.2 A computation graph meant to be executed is, essentially, a computer program.

6.3 Even a program written in a programming language with parallelization instructions or with some express potential for parallel execution such as array processing may be executed on parallel hardware or not. Such a program can also be executed on a single-core processor. In this case, a speed-up by parallelization is not achieved. In many cases, a parallel program could be expected to execute more slowly on the single core than an equivalent serial program since any parallelization overhead is not compensated by the speed-up of parallel computation. This is to say that the speed-up of parallelization is not achieved by the form of the parallel program alone and not before the program is actually deployed and executed on parallel hardware.

6.4 In T 1173/97, it was decided that a computer program is not excluded from patentability if, when it is run on a computer, it produces a further technical effect which goes beyond the "normal" physical interactions between program (software) and computer (hardware) (see catchword and point 13 of the reasons).

6.5 This board takes the view that T 1173/97 meant to make this statement only if the mentioned further technical effect was produced whenever the program was run, i.e. on any suitable hardware or runtime environment. For if that effect was produced on a particular execution platform but not on another, the effect could not be attributed to the program itself - unless maybe there was an argument to the effect that the required execution platform was implicit in the program claim. In all other situations, it would seem that the execution platform required to achieve the effect would have to be claimed as an essential feature.

6.6 This would appear to mean that if, as in the present case, an inventive-step argument is to rely upon a speed-up by parallelization, a parallel execution platform must be claimed. Consequently, the mere potential for a speed-up by parallelization would not seem to be sufficient as a "further" technical effect because this effect is not achieved irrespective of how the program is executed.

Order

For these reasons it is decided that:

The appeal is dismissed.

Footer - Service & support
  • Service & support
    • Website updates
    • Availability of online services
    • FAQ
    • Publications
    • Procedural communications
    • Contact us
    • Subscription centre
    • Official holidays
    • Glossary
Footer - More links
  • Jobs & careers
  • Press centre
  • Single Access Portal
  • Procurement
  • Boards of Appeal
Facebook
European Patent Office
EPO Jobs
Instagram
EuropeanPatentOffice
Linkedin
European Patent Office
EPO Jobs
EPO Procurement
X (formerly Twitter)
EPOorg
EPOjobs
Youtube
TheEPO
Footer
  • Legal notice
  • Terms of use
  • Data protection and privacy
  • Accessibility