1. A patent is a legal title giving its proprietor, for a limited time period in a specified territory, the right to prevent others from commercially manufacturing, using or selling the patented invention without his consent. 2. The European Patent Convention (EPC) rules in Article 52: "European patents shall be granted for any inventions which are susceptible of industrial application, which are new and which involve an inventive step." 3. However, MATHEMATICAL METHODS AS SUCH are excluded from patentability as well as e.g. discoveries, scientific theories, aesthetic creations, schemes for performing mental acts, and programs for computers AS SUCH. 4. Rules 27 and 29 EPC require that patentable inventions relate to a technical field, be concerned with a technical problem and be characterised in the claims by technical features. 5. If, therefore, the claimed subject-matter CONSIDERED AS A WHOLE makes a TECHNICAL CONTRIBUTION to the known art, a patent can be granted , provided all the other requirements are fulfilled. This applies, even if a MATHEMATICAL METHOD is involved. 6. If no technical contribution can be identified the claims must be rejected. But in most cases the rejection can be avoided by amending the claims, provided the originally filed application documents disclose the information necessary to allow such amendment, Article 123(2) EPC.
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