Key points
- Under the Comvik approach to inventive step, the non-technical features of the claim are basically put in the objective technical problem (“in particular where the claim refers to an aim to be achieved in a non-technical field, this aim may legitimately appear in the formulation of the problem as part of the framework of the technical problem that is to be solved, in particular as a constraint that has to be met”; T 641/00 hn.2, G1/19 r.30(g).
- However, it's not so easy to find an easy and illustrative example of the Comvik approach in the case law of the Boards. There are numerous decisions applying the Comvik approach but often the non-technical innovation is complex, or the step of actually formulating the objective technical problem in line with the Comvik approach is summarily disposed of.
- In the present case, “The invention concerns the automatic selection of a customised telemarketing script. When a potential customer calls a number in an advertisement, the call is often received by a sales representative firm that represents many businesses. Thus, the sales representative needs to find the marketing script associated with the product or service that the customer is calling about. Furthermore, it is advantageous to use a script that is targeted to the prospective customer. For example, a person who is likely to make a high value purchase may receive a different offer than a person who is likely to make a low value purchase, or unlikely to make a purchase at all.” (internal citations omitted).
- The invention uses number recognition to identify the caller's phone number (ANI), looks the number up in a database (shared between different telemarketing firms), and calculates a score (e.g. a "prospective customer value indicator") which in turn is used to select the phone script from a database that the marketer is to follow. In the same way, the specific phone number (DNIS) in the advertisement is also used (for telemarketing firms acting for various selling companies)
- The Board, “Starting from a conventional communication system combining a telephone system and a computer system, such as the one disclosed in D1 [(US6597685], the invention in claim 1 distinguishes itself by the use of the ANI to locate customer information in a database, the calculation of a modeling score based upon the customer information and the DNIS, the selection of a stored script based on the modeling score contemporaneously with a time at which the customer communications device provides the ANI, and the display of the script to the marketer.”
- “In line with the Comvik approach, the Board considers that the problem to be solved by the distinguishing features is how to automate the method of selecting a customised script defined under point 2.3 above.”
- ô2.6 In the Board's view, the technical implementation of the non-technical requirements, including the use of ANI and DNIS to identify the customer (caller) and the contacted business (callee) respectively, and the use of the computer to contemporaneously look up information in a database, calculate the modelling score, and select and display a relevant script, would have been obvious to the skilled person in the art of telecommunications and computer systems. ANI and DNIS were well known and designed to provide the recipient of the telephone call with information about the caller and the dialled number. The skilled person would have provided suitable means for storing and retrieving data, including the use of the ANI as an identifier for storing and retrieving customer information in a database.”
T 1141/17 -
https://www.epo.org/law-practice/case-law-appeals/recent/t171141eu1.html
Reasons for the Decision
1. Background
1.1 The invention concerns the automatic selection of a customised telemarketing script (see page 4, lines 12 to 14 of the published application).
1.2 When a potential customer calls a number in an advertisement, the call is often received by a sales representative firm that represents many businesses (page 3, lines 5 to 16). Thus, the sales representative needs to find the marketing script associated with the product or service that the customer is calling about.
source http://justpatentlaw.blogspot.com/2021/09/t-114117-example-of-comvik-approach.html
