Patent decision

BL number

O/0738/23

Concerning rights in

GB2110277.7

Hearing Officer

Mr H Jones

Decision date

1 August 2023

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

Pearson Education, Inc.

Provisions discussed

Section 1(2)(c)

Keywords

Excluded fields (refused)

Related Decisions

None

Summary

The invention relates to relates to an electronic reader user interface. The electronic reader has a corpus of electronic content (such as an electronic version of a magazine or a book). The invention presents a navigation bar on the user interface, showing a continuous series of thumbnail images, each corresponding to a section of the corpus. The thumbnail images have a height proportional to the length of the section, and visually reflect the structure and type of content in the section. The navigation bar indicates the current reading position in the corpus and allows the user to navigate to other parts of the corpus. The Hearing Officer applied the four step Aerotel/Macrossan test and considered the AT&T signposts. The contribution reflected the features of the electronic user interface and the benefits in allowing the reader to understand their current place in a corpus of electronic content and quickly recognise and navigate to other parts of the corpus. It was found not to provide the required technical effect and the claimed invention was found to relate solely to a program for a computer as such. The application did not meet the requirements of section 1(2)(c) and was refused under section 18(3).

Full decision O/0738/23 234Kb