Patent decision

BL number
O/252/07
Concerning rights in
GB0225509.9
Hearing Officer
Mr R C Kennell
Decision date
30 August 2007
Person(s) or Company(s) involved
Canon Europa NV
Provisions discussed
PA 1977 section 1(2)
Keywords
Excluded fields (refused)
Related Decisions
None

Summary

The invention provided for communication between a plurality of electronic devices (such as office equipment) to be maintained and one or more remote maintenance systems in which a maintenance computer took the necessary action on the basis of status information about the devices. A central server received the status information, stored it in a central database, and sent a message to the appropriate maintenance system if necessary, so that a user at that end could access the database and transfer information from it to the maintenance computer. The applicant argued that in the light of the Aerotel appeal allowed in Aerotel/Macrossan [2006] EWCA Civ 1371 the contribution of the invention was a new physical combination of hardware providing a new interface between the service management system and a central database.

Noting that the reasoning in the Aerotel appeal was not directed to the computer program exclusion, the hearing officer held that the contribution arose from a new computer program for communicating between the devices and the maintenance organizations and was not a new physical combination of hardware. The contribution was therefore excluded both as a computer program and as a scheme or method for running an equipment maintenance business. It therefore failed the third step of the Aerotel/Macrossan test and it was not necessary to consider whether it was technical in nature. The application was refused.

Full decision O/252/07 PDF document41Kb