Patent decision

BL number

O/030/20

Concerning rights in

GB1818033.1

Hearing Officer

Mr P Thorpe

Decision date

16 January 2020

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

Motorola Solutions, Inc

Provisions discussed

Patents Act 1977 s1(2)

Keywords

Abuse of process, Divisional application, Estoppel, Excluded fields (refused)

Related Decisions

O/800/18

Summary

The invention claimed in the application, which was a divisional application, relates to the pursuit of fugitives. More specifically, it involves analysing various input data to predict the likely route of the fugitive and then outputting directions to direct pursuit assets to capture the fugitive at a determined capture location. The Hearing Officer found that claimed invention was excluded from patentability as a program for a computer and a method of doing business, as such. The application was therefore refused. The decision also considered whether an earlier decision on the parent application had created an estoppel in respect of the divisional and whether the filing of the divisional in the window between the hearing on the parent and the decision on the parent constituted an abuse of process. Whilst questioning the desirability of the applicant’s actions, the Hearing Officer did not go on to find that any estoppel had been created or that they was any abuse of process sufficient to warrant not considering the divisional.

Full decision O/030/20 329Kb