A recent Enlarged Board of Appeal of the European Patent Office (EPO) held that a computer-implemented simulation of a technical system or process which is claimed as such can, for the purpose of assessing inventive step, solve a technical problem by producing a technical effect going beyond the simulation’s implementation on a computer; and that the established case law on computer-implemented inventions (COMVIK approach) applies to computer-implemented simulations even if these do not have an output having a direct link with physical reality. This paper explains and analyses the legal context (1), facts (2), judicial outcome (3) and analyses the wider legal significance and practical implications (4) of this highly relevant judgment.