Patent decision

BL number

O/0219/25

Concerning rights in

GB2106263.3

Hearing Officer

Dr R Dinham

Decision date

12 March 2025

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

Hypatia Solutions Ltd

Provisions discussed

Patents Act 1977 section 14(3)

Keywords

Sufficiency

Related Decisions

None

Summary

The application relates to a method of determining whether a host has an infection by measuring the numbers of different blood cell types and using specific equations applied to these numbers to determine an infection status. The only example provided utilises this method for the determining of SARS-Cov2 infection.

The examiner maintained an objection to sufficiency of disclosure against claim 7 only; this claim defined the use of the method for determining the presence of any infectious disease, and the examiner considered that given the only example related to SARS-Cov2 infection, its use for any infectious disease was not enabled.

The hearing officer did not agree that claim was classically insufficient, as there was an example provided, however she did consider whether there was insufficiency due to excessive claim breadth (“Biogen insufficiency”). At the hearing, the applicant provided detailed submissions on the role of the data scientist in identifying equations that could be used to identify specific infections. The applicant also explained how the information provided in the specification in relation to SARS-Cov2 could be used to apply the method to other infectious diseases, and how this would be routine to the data scientist. The hearing officer agreed with the applicant that this was sufficient information to enable the invention across the breadth of the claim, and so the requirements of section 14(3) were met. The application was remitted to the examiner to continue the examination process.

Full decision O/0219/25 227Kb