{"id":1424,"date":"2026-04-12T10:39:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T10:39:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stage.sbmp.ch\/a-good-idea-is-not-enough-epo-revokes-ebaras-ai-waste-estimation-patent-for-insufficient-disclosure\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T09:56:42","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T09:56:42","slug":"a-good-idea-is-not-enough-epo-revokes-ebaras-ai-waste-estimation-patent-for-insufficient-disclosure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sbmp.ch\/fr\/a-good-idea-is-not-enough-epo-revokes-ebaras-ai-waste-estimation-patent-for-insufficient-disclosure\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00ab\u00a0A Good Idea Is Not Enough\u00a0\u00bb: EPO Revokes Ebara&rsquo;s AI Waste Estimation Patent for Insufficient Disclosure"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Case:<\/strong> T 0048\/24 | <strong>Board:<\/strong> Technical Board of Appeal 3.5.06 | <strong>Date:<\/strong> 13 November 2025<\/p>\n\n<p><strong>Key Takeaways<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<p><strong>1. Claiming broad ML outputs without technical detail is fatal.<\/strong> A patent that merely states a result to be achieved \u2014 without disclosing how a machine learning model should be implemented, trained, or evaluated \u2014 will not survive a sufficiency challenge, especially when the claimed output spans a wide range of possibilities.<\/p>\n\n<p><strong>2. \u00ab\u00a0One way\u00a0\u00bb of working the invention is not enough if the claim is broad.<\/strong> Even accepting that a coarse three-label waste classification could be implemented using a CNN, this did not enable the skilled person to carry out the full breadth of the claim, which extended to many other output types and precision levels.<\/p>\n\n<p><strong>Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<p>Hitachi Zosen Inova AG successfully challenged a patent held by Ebara Environmental Plant Co., Ltd. covering a machine learning device for estimating the composition of waste stored in a pit \u2014 information relevant to controlling incineration plants. The Opposition Division had initially rejected the challenge, but the Board of Appeal reversed that decision and revoked the patent. <\/p>\n\n<p>The core issue was sufficiency of disclosure under Article 100(b) EPC. The patent&rsquo;s claim was broadly drafted: it covered any \u00ab\u00a0data of\u00a0\u00bb a captured image as input and any \u00ab\u00a0value representing composition\u00a0\u00bb as output, without limiting the type of ML model, the training approach, or the required accuracy. The Board found this combination of extreme breadth and minimal technical disclosure fatal. The patent offered no concrete working example, no guidance on which input data or model architectures were suitable, and no information on achievable accuracy \u2014 leaving a skilled person to conduct what would amount to an open-ended research programme across an enormous parameter space. That constitutes undue burden. All eight auxiliary requests failed for the same essential reason, and the patent was revoked in full.     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Case: T 0048\/24 | Board: Technical Board of Appeal 3.5.06 | Date: 13 November 2025 Key Takeaways 1. Claiming broad ML outputs without technical detail is fatal. A patent that merely states a result to be achieved \u2014 without disclosing how a machine learning model should be implemented, trained, or evaluated \u2014 will not survive [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>&quot;A Good Idea Is Not Enough&quot;: EPO Revokes Ebara&#039;s AI Waste Estimation Patent for Insufficient Disclosure - Schaad, Balass, Menzl &amp; Partner AG<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sbmp.ch\/fr\/a-good-idea-is-not-enough-epo-revokes-ebaras-ai-waste-estimation-patent-for-insufficient-disclosure\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"fr_FR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"&quot;A Good Idea Is Not Enough&quot;: EPO Revokes Ebara&#039;s AI Waste Estimation Patent for Insufficient Disclosure - Schaad, Balass, Menzl &amp; Partner AG\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Case: T 0048\/24 | Board: Technical Board of Appeal 3.5.06 | Date: 13 November 2025 Key Takeaways 1. 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