Patent decision

BL number
O/151/06
Hearing Officer
Mr H Jones
Decision date
15 June 2006
Person(s) or Company(s) involved
Bloomberg LP
Provisions discussed
PA 1977 Section 1(2)(c)
Keywords
Excluded fields (refused)
Related Decisions
None

Summary

The application relates to a method for customizing the format and distribution of financial data sent to end users across a computer network. The method, embodied as a server-side computer application, is able to select data records from an input stream of financial data in accordance with preferences set by the user, and to re-format the selected data records according to further preferences prior to transfer across the network. This allows the filtering of financial data sent to the end-user and also the mapping of data into a format that can be readily used by client-side applications. It was common ground that the advance in the art made by the claimed invention lay in the filtering and mapping of financial data prior to transmission to an end-user. The Hearing Officer considered the judgements in RIM and CFPH and concluded that the filtering and mapping of financial data did not provide the technical advance necessary to pass the test for patentability. The advance lay wholly within the meaning of a program for a computer and the application was refused.

Full decision O/151/06 PDF document56Kb