4.1. Détermination du problème technique objectif en général

Résumé

In T 629/22, concerning the inventive step of the subject-matter claimed in auxiliary request 1a-p-s, the board identified D12 as the closest prior art. The claimed subject-matter of a cheese analogue differed from the teaching of D12 at least on account of the type and amount of starch: 10 to 24 wt.% of non-modified root or tuber starch or of a waxy root or tuber starch instead of 7 wt.% modified starch.

The board was satisfied that the tests in the patent and in D27 and D29 made it credible that cheese analogues prepared using non-modified tuber and root starch had melt-stretch characteristics. Appellant 1 noted however that example 28 of D38 showed that no stretchable cheese analogue could be obtained using 10 wt.% waxy potato starch, 0.5 wt.% potato protein and 35 wt.% sunflower oil. This demonstrated that the claims were overly broad and that melt-stretch characteristics could not be achieved across the entire scope claimed.

The board did not agree with these conclusions. The amounts of potato protein (0.5 wt.%) and starch (10 wt.%) used in example 28 of D38 were the lowest foreseen in the patent whereas the amount of fat (35 wt.%) was the highest. This meant that the allegedly non-working embodiment in example 28 related to a rather peculiar case.

The patent and the experimental reports D27 and D55 described cheese analogues comprising different amounts of waxy starch, potato protein and fat. The amount of these ingredients was varied substantially across the entire scope claimed: that of the potato proteins from 0.5 to 5 wt.%, that of the starch from 10 to 24 wt.% and that of oil from 10 to 35 wt.%. All these cheese analogues exhibited melt-stretch characteristics. This made it credible that the claimed effect could be obtained substantially across the entire scope claimed.

The board noted the findings of the Enlarged Board in G 1/03 (OJ 2004, 413), point 2.5.2 of the Reasons, that where "…there is a large number of conceivable alternatives and the specification contains sufficient information on the relevant criteria for finding appropriate alternatives over the claimed range with reasonable effort […] the inclusion of non-working embodiments is of no harm."

The board found that in the case in hand the patent indeed described a large number of conceivable alternatives and sufficient information for finding appropriate alternatives over the claimed range, with reasonable effort. If a skilled person failed to prepare a stretchable cheese analogue using the amounts of ingredients in example 28 of D38, they would: realise that the conditions used are extreme because the amounts of the ingredients are at the edge of each of the ranges foreseen in the patent; find in the patent, and in particular in the examples, the teaching that compositions having the desired properties could be obtained by increasing the amount of potato protein and/or decreasing the amount of the oil. The tests in the patent and in D27 and D55 made it credible that if a skilled person followed the teaching in the patent, they would obtain a cheese analogue having the relevant stretch properties.

The board concluded the claimed effect could be obtained substantially across the entire scope claimed. Therefore, the presence of a single non-working embodiment was of no harm.

Résumé

In T 1994/22 the respondent (patent proprietor) inter alia had relied on post-published data D32 and submitted that Form II (according to claim 1 of the main request) as claimed had an improved photostability over Form III (comparative).

The respondent relied on the statements made in T 116/18 as regards G 2/21 and submitted that referring to the provision of a novel crystal of compound A (selexipag) and to a pharmaceutical product of "high quality for which constant effect can always be shown and a form which is handled easily industrially", the skilled person would have understood that the effect of improved photostability was implied by or at least related to the technical problem initially suggested in the originally filed application. Therefore, requirement (i) [in T 116/18], as encompassed by the technical teaching, was met. Furthermore, the respondent claimed the skilled person would not have had any legitimate reason to doubt that the improved photostability could be achieved with the claimed polymorphic form of selexipag. Therefore, requirement (ii) [in T 116/18], as embodied by the same originally disclosed invention, was also met in the present case.

In line with T 116/18, the board in the present case acknowledged that the mere fact that photostability or improved photostability was not contained in terms of a positive verbal statement in the application as filed and that the application as filed did not contain any data as regards photostability, as such, did not imply that the effect of improved photostability could not be relied on in terms of G 2/21 or T 116/18.

However, the board did not consider such a sweeping statement regarding "high quality" and "easy industrial handleability", which covers a plethora of potential advantageous properties, to encompass photostability, let alone improved photostability. If such a sweeping statement were sufficient, a reference to high quality would be sufficient to invoke whatever technical effect as being encompassed by an application as filed in the sense of G 2/21. This would essentially render the first criterion of order no. 2 of G 2/21 meaningless. In the present case, the application as filed was in fact directed to particle size, residual solvent content and amount of impurities, properties which are entirely unrelated to photostability. Therefore, based on these properties, having the common general knowledge in mind, the skilled person would by no means have recognised that (improved) photostability was relevant to the claimed subject-matter. Going from these specific properties to the effect of photostability would also clearly change the nature of the invention, contrary to what is required by T 116/18. Hence, the board found the effect of photostability was not encompassed by the teaching of the application as filed.

Furthermore, even if it were wrongly concluded in the respondent's favour that the technical teaching of the application as filed were to encompass photostability in the sense of T 116/18, it would not do so "together with the claimed subject-matter", as required by this decision.

The respondent submitted during the oral proceedings that the present case was also in line with T 1989/19 and that it was not a requirement that the application as filed disclosed improved photostability. In that case, the board held that once the criterion of the derivability of a technical effect in the sense of G 2/21 was fulfilled, this applied equally to the improvement in this effect. The board agreed with the view expressed in T 1989/19; however in the present case, photostability was not encompassed and thus not derivable from the teaching of the application as filed in the sense of G 2/21. Furthermore, unlike in T 1989/19, the application as filed in the present case referred to three polymorphic forms in equal terms, and the present case was not one in which the purported improvement was asserted to be present for the subject-matter of the application as filed over the subject-matter disclosed in the prior art.

It followed that improved photostability of Form II as demonstrated in D32 could not be taken into account in the assessment of the technical effects achieved by the distinguishing feature.