T1680/08 determining airway pressure levels, European Patent Office (EPO Board of Appeal), 8 June 2011

Faced with a claim directed at a method for determining airway pressure levels, the Board isolated a step from the claim that required changing the airway pressure of an artificial ventilator to observe certain responses. The Board found that this step could not be distinguished from what a medical doctor would do in order to adapt an artificial ventilator to any given patient. As the latter had the therapeutic effect of keeping the patient alive, the claim was excluded from patentability under article 53 EPC as a method of treatment by therapy.

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