In the 4th quarter (October to December) of 2021, only 2 positively decided cases were added to our knowledge base in which relevant aspects of the claimed-subject-matter were considered technical. For those who do not have the time to read all of our selected decision, in the following, we will briefly summarize these cases.

T 2010/17: Selection of an available memory size

The application underlying this decision relates to the configuration of circuits. More specifically, a configuration can be locked and protected by a signature.

The feature of "generating a signature representative of the selected memory size by the integrated circuit" was considered technical by the Board in charge. However, the Board also ruled that this feature is rendered obvious to the skilled person.

T 0227/18: Supporting multiple instances of the same payment application

This decision relates to a method for supporting a plurality of instances of the same type of payment application, e.g. MasterCard PayPass or Maestro PayPass, on a wireless smart device.

According to the Board in charge, associating different instances/bank accounts with the same type of application is a technical solution to the problem of how to enable the use of different bank accounts with the same type of application using a single IC card or smart device.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.