b) From product claim to a claim directed to using a product to achieve an effect 

In T 134/95 a patent had been granted in respect of a "container for medical use", designed for the separate storage and the mixing of compounds. The protection conferred therefore related to the apparatus and, necessarily, to its use at least for the purposes of storage and mixing. After amendment, the claim became a use claim, covering only the use of the container and no longer protecting the apparatus as such. Having pointed out that inventions of this kind were designed with a particular object in mind and could not normally be used for other purposes, the board noted that in this case, the change of category, replacing the granted claim with a claim for the use of the container, had the effect of limiting the scope of protection. The two stages of the process therefore in no way had the effect of modifying the starting solutions with a view to obtaining or manufacturing a product. This use therefore fell into the category "use of a physical entity to obtain an effect or result" (see G 2/88, OJ 1990, 93), and on this basis the change of category was allowable.

A change from a product claim to a claim for the use of the product to produce an effect was also allowed in T 568/94, T 78/97, T 977/02.