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BLOG@IP::JURPatent Attorney Axel H Horns' Blog on Intellectual Property Law.
Thursday, August 18, 2005EPO Board Of Appeal on the Meaning of a Functional Feature in a Product Claim.From a recently published decision T 0132/02 of the Technical Board of Appeal 3.5.1 of the European Patent Office concerning European Patent application No. 95304215.7: "A functional feature in a product claim should be construed as an implicit definition of those structural features which are necessary to achieve a particular effect when the product is used or applied in accordance with the teaching inherent in the claim; the effect to be achieved and the use should be disclosed in the application. The capability of attaining such a particular effect may thus be considered as an implicit feature of the product itself, even if the realization of the particular effect requires a particular use or interaction with another product, system or apparatus, provided that such use or interaction are disclosed in the application."These findings are of particular importance when it comes to a proper understanding of certain classes of claims concerning computer-implemented inventions in general.
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