9.2.10 Assessment of features relating to a presentation of information
Data structures which are used to store cognitive data are not considered to contribute to the technical character beyond the mere storage of data, but data structures used for functional purposes are considered to contribute to producing a technical effect (e.g., T 1194/97, OJ 2000, 525; T 424/03; T 697/17).
In T 49/99 the board ruled that information modelling was a non-technical intellectual activity, but that the purposive use of information modelling in the context of a solution to a technical problem could contribute to the technical character of an invention.
In T 858/02 the board held that an electronic message was not automatically excluded from patentability as a presentation of information. It depended on whether the message was defined by its structure or its content. A computer data structure was not under all circumstances excluded from patentability; the fact that in the present case the instructions defined a structure of the message did not automatically lead to the conclusion that a "format (i.e. data structure)" was unpatentable.
In T 1351/04 an index file used for the purpose of controlling the computer "along the path leading to the desired data" was considered to contribute to the solution of a technical problem. See also decisions T 1902/10, T 2539/12, T 2330/13.