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T 1378/16 - Oral proceedings before the Board held by videoconference


The oral proceedings in the present case took place on 8 May 2020 and were the first held by videoconference in the history of the Boards of the Appeal of the EPO. Unlike some national legal systems, the EPC does not stipulate explicitly the form(s) in which oral proceedings under Article 116 EPC shall take place. For these reasons, the Board considers it appropriate to address briefly the legal basis for oral proceedings within the meaning of Article 116 EPC.

T 1294/15 - A business method claim without claiming the business is still a business method

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet
In affiliate reward programs, rewards might need to be divided among different participants; in the claim between a content manager and an introduction page manager. Instead of dividing up each reward among the parties, the application proposes to sometimes award the full amount to one single party and sometimes to another single party. Overtime this balances out so that the rewards are are about equal to exact division. The new scheme is more efficient since it needs fewer divisions. 
The board doesn't like the claim, as it represents a business method. However the applicant makes an interesting argument. By stripping all the business aspects of the claim, one is left with merely an improved division algorithm. If the stripped claim is technical and inventive then surely further restricting it can't remove patentability? Unfortunately for the applicant this argument is not accepted.