Patent decision

BL number
O/187/06
Concerning rights in
GB0407203.9
Hearing Officer
Mr P Marchant
Decision date
6 July 2006
Person(s) or Company(s) involved
Intel Corporation
Provisions discussed
PA 1977 Section 1(2)
Keywords
Excluded fields (refused)
Related Decisions
None

Summary

The invention relates to the processing of computer source code to generate executable code. Candidate sections of source code are identified where it is possible to predict that the code will return a specific value most of the time. The code is replaced with code defining the result of processing that section of code with the specific value. This process is termed 'value specialization' and is carried out at compile-time rather than at run-time as is the case with some other code optimization processes. The hearing officer found the invention to relate as a matter of substance to a compiler program, and found that it did not comply with the requirement for patentability set out in section 1(2)(c) since it related to a program for a computer as such.

Full decision O/187/06 PDF document58Kb