{"id":1447,"date":"2026-04-12T10:37:20","date_gmt":"2026-04-12T10:37:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stage.sbmp.ch\/automating-the-mundane-isnt-inventive-epo-shoots-down-auctanes-shipping-software-patent\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T10:27:59","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T10:27:59","slug":"automating-the-mundane-isnt-inventive-epo-shoots-down-auctanes-shipping-software-patent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sbmp.ch\/fr\/automating-the-mundane-isnt-inventive-epo-shoots-down-auctanes-shipping-software-patent\/","title":{"rendered":"Automating the Mundane Isn&rsquo;t Inventive\u00a0\u00bb: EPO Shoots Down Auctane&rsquo;s Shipping Software Patent"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Case<\/strong>: T 1851\/22 | <strong>Board<\/strong>: Technical Board of Appeal 3.5.01 | <strong>Date<\/strong>: 12 December 2025<\/p>\n\n<p><strong>Key Takeaways<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<p><strong>1. Algorithmic \u2260 Technical.<\/strong> The Board made clear that steps conceived by a computer programmer \u2014 rather than a business person \u2014 do not automatically gain technical character. Code is still just code unless it solves a technical problem through a technical effect.<\/p>\n\n<p><strong>2. Automating a non-technical process on generic hardware is never inventive.<\/strong> Implementing a business workflow more efficiently on a standard computer does not clear the inventive step bar under Article 56 EPC, no matter how sophisticated the automation looks on paper.<\/p>\n\n<p><strong>Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<p>Auctane, LLC. (the company behind Stamps.com and ShipStation) appealed the EPO Examining Division&rsquo;s refusal of their patent application for a system that automates the generation of shipping documentation. The core idea: skip user prompts and warnings upfront, apply default settings, and let a background subprocess handle order processing \u2014 only flagging truly critical issues that cannot be resolved automatically.<\/p>\n\n<p>The Board dismissed the appeal. It found that the claimed method was essentially a non-technical, administrative workflow being run on a generic computer. The \u00ab\u00a0intelligent generation subprocess\u00a0\u00bb amounted to nothing more than loading and executing a software module \u2014 well-known at the priority date. Crucially, the Board rejected Auctane&rsquo;s argument that defining when failure-state mitigation kicks in constitutes a technical contribution, finding it either non-technical by nature or self-evident in context. Since all four claim requests suffered from the same lack of inventive step, the appeal was dismissed in its entirety.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Case: T 1851\/22 | Board: Technical Board of Appeal 3.5.01 | Date: 12 December 2025 Key Takeaways 1. Algorithmic \u2260 Technical. The Board made clear that steps conceived by a computer programmer \u2014 rather than a business person \u2014 do not automatically gain technical character. Code is still just code unless it solves a technical [&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-1447","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>Automating the Mundane Isn&#039;t Inventive&quot;: EPO Shoots Down Auctane&#039;s Shipping Software Patent - 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\/automating-the-mundane-isnt-inventive-epo-shoots-down-auctanes-shipping-software-patent\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"fr_FR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Automating the Mundane Isn&#039;t Inventive&quot;: EPO Shoots Down Auctane&#039;s Shipping Software Patent - Schaad, Balass, Menzl &amp; Partner AG\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Case: T 1851\/22 | Board: Technical Board of Appeal 3.5.01 | Date: 12 December 2025 Key Takeaways 1. Algorithmic \u2260 Technical. The Board made clear that steps conceived by a computer programmer \u2014 rather than a business person \u2014 do not automatically gain technical character. Code is still just code unless it solves a technical [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sbmp.ch\/fr\/automating-the-mundane-isnt-inventive-epo-shoots-down-auctanes-shipping-software-patent\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Schaad, Balass, Menzl &amp; Partner AG\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-12T10:37:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-24T10:27:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"info@felsbrand.ch\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"\u00c9crit par\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"info@felsbrand.ch\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Dur\u00e9e de lecture estim\u00e9e\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sbmp.ch\\\/fr\\\/automating-the-mundane-isnt-inventive-epo-shoots-down-auctanes-shipping-software-patent\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sbmp.ch\\\/fr\\\/automating-the-mundane-isnt-inventive-epo-shoots-down-auctanes-shipping-software-patent\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"info@felsbrand.ch\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sbmp.ch\\\/fr\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/937d88ecc06f807fa04fc00a051b75c6\"},\"headline\":\"Automating the Mundane Isn&rsquo;t Inventive\u00a0\u00bb: EPO Shoots Down Auctane&rsquo;s Shipping Software Patent\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-12T10:37:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-24T10:27:59+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sbmp.ch\\\/fr\\\/automating-the-mundane-isnt-inventive-epo-shoots-down-auctanes-shipping-software-patent\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":255,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sbmp.ch\\\/fr\\\/#organization\"},\"inLanguage\":\"fr-FR\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/sbmp.ch\\\/fr\\\/automating-the-mundane-isnt-inventive-epo-shoots-down-auctanes-shipping-software-patent\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sbmp.ch\\\/fr\\\/automating-the-mundane-isnt-inventive-epo-shoots-down-auctanes-shipping-software-patent\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sbmp.ch\\\/fr\\\/automating-the-mundane-isnt-inventive-epo-shoots-down-auctanes-shipping-software-patent\\\/\",\"name\":\"Automating the Mundane Isn't Inventive\\\": EPO Shoots Down Auctane's Shipping Software Patent - Schaad, Balass, Menzl &amp; 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