No Reasonable Doubt That Neural Networks Can Provide Technical Tools

The Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office recently considered an invention directed to a sparsely connected neural network, which the applicant tried to protect per se, independent of any specific technical implementation. The decision confirms that neural networks are, fundamentally, a class of mathematical functions specified by the structure of the network and its parameters. The invention goes beyond the “black box” view of neural networks and delves into the network’s structure, providing highly relevant guidance for practitioners on the types of facts and arguments that will not convince the EPO to acknowledge that a technical problem is solved.