d) Navigation systems 

In T 2035/11 the application mainly related to navigation systems that could be tailored to a user's particular wishes. The board held that optimisation algorithms are mathematical methods. It noted that mathematical algorithms may contribute to the technical character of an invention only in so far as they serve a technical purpose (see e.g. decision T 1784/06). The purpose of the algorithm was the mere display of an optimal path to the user for cognitive processing. The user could act on the information, but did not need to. As stated in decision T 1670/07, a technical effect may arise from either the provision of data about a technical process, regardless of the presence of the user or its subsequent use, or from the provision of data (including data that on its own is excluded, e.g. produced by means of an algorithm) that is applied directly in a technical process. In the case at issue, the data was produced by means of an algorithm and was not applied directly in a technical process, so that neither possibility applied. The German Federal Supreme Court had come to a similar conclusion in respect of a navigation system offering the user the possibility to exclude road segments based on a user-selectable property such as the road segment being a toll road (see BGH, 18 December 2012, X ZR 3/12 – Routenplanung).

In T 651/12 the board stated that what were meant in Art. 52(2)(a) EPC were merely abstract mathematical methods, i.e. calculations for the sake of the calculation. However, in the case at issue, which was essentially the technical implementation in a map display apparatus of the method for displaying a bird's eye view map, the outcome of the calculation was used for a technical purpose, namely to display information in an ergonomically improved manner. The board further stated that also the calculation as such in that case had in the board's judgment clear technical aspects: the technical effect of reducing the need for data storage and enhancing the calculation speed, which were considered to provide a technical solution to a technical problem. In T 505/18 the board decided, in line with T 651/12, to recognise improved safety in the technical context of the invention, that of real-time route guidance of a driver of a vehicle, as being a technical effect, and the considerations regarding improved safety in a vehicle navigation system as being technical considerations made by the technical expert in navigation systems.