IP Quick Tip: Plausibility at the EPO

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Plausibility as such is not a patentability requirement at the European Patent Office. However, plausibility is highly relevant particularly in medical use cases, or for inventions relating to artificial intelligence. This is due to the fact that a technical teaching is only considered disclosed in an enabling manner if it was at least plausible for the skilled person at the effective filing date that the claimed technical effect could actually be achieved. On the other hand, the teaching of a prior art reference is only relevant to the disclosure as far as it is plausible, or, in other words, disclosed in an enabling manner. This is intended to prevent the grant of speculative patents or to prevent speculative prior art from standing in the way of a patent being granted or maintained.

Plausibility is also important in the context of inventive step. According to EPO case law, there can only be an invention if the application makes it at least plausible that its teaching does indeed solve the problem it claims to solve. In other words, speculative claims do not justify a patent.

Therefore, a patent application should not be filed until there is a basis for demonstrating that the claimed technical effect is indeed achieved. Depending on the technology, this does not necessarily require experimental data to be included in the application if it is otherwise apparent that the invention works.