Patent decision

BL number

O/0671/25

Concerning rights in

GB2103155.4

Hearing Officer

Mr S Brown

Decision date

22 July 2025

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

Dr Andre Clark

Provisions discussed

PA 1977 Section 14(3) and Section 1(1)(b)

Keywords

Inventive step, Sufficiency

Related Decisions

None

Summary

1 The application concerns the use of borophene for making the bristles, or other cleaning parts, of a toothbrush. Borophene is a crystalline atomic monolayer of boron that is known to be stronger and more flexible than graphene.

2 The Hearing Officer applied the steps in Eli Lilly and concluded that the specification was not sufficient to allow the invention to be performed over the whole scope of the claims without undue burden. Thus, it was insufficient due to excessive claim breadth.

3 The Hearing Officer did identify one embodiment which was arguably sufficiently enabled by the specification. However, on applying the teaching of Pozzoli he concluded that this embodiment was obvious.

4 The application was refused under section 18(3).

Full decision O/0671/25 366Kb