Human and Machine Rights: Limits of patent protection in Europe. A case law study

Patent protection under the European Patent Convention (EPC) is not available for all issues. The intuitive colloquial meaning of the terms "invention" and "technical" often differs from the legal interpretation given in case-law decisions. Many of the current patent disputes among the players in the smartphone and portable-device market are based on issues relating to graphical user interfaces (GUIs), which allow the user to interact and interface with these devices. Furthermore, practitio...