I. Use as an oral contraceptive of a composition in which the claimed concentrations of the hormone content are selected at such a low level as to prevent or reduce the likely pathological side-effects of such an oral contraceptive is a therapeutic method excluded from patentability under Article 53(c) EPC.

II. Since the question whether or not a claimed use is therapeutic can be determined only in the light of the activities carried out and/or the effects achieved in the course of that use, the exclusion from patentability under Article 53(c) EPC of a therapeutic use in which a non-therapeutic use in the form of a contraceptive is inseparably associated with a therapeutic use in the form of the prevention or reduction of pathological side-effects cannot be removed by limiting the claim to a "non-therapeutic use".

III. The conversion of a claim for the use of a substance or composition for a specific purpose into a Swiss-type claim or a purpose-related product claim within the meaning of Article 54(5) EPC results in an extension of protection.

IV. In assessing the reasonableness of any series of tests needed to reproduce an invention, account must also be taken of their avoidability. Time-consuming and ethically questionable tests are unreasonable if the claimed invention could have been defined, without any limitation of its scope, by features which would have rendered such series of tests superfluous for the purpose of reproducibility by the skilled person.