Patent decision

BL number

O/1018/23

Concerning rights in

GB2003284.3

Hearing Officer

Miss J Pullen

Decision date

31 October 2023

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

Tracelink, Inc.

Provisions discussed

PA 1977 Section 1(2)(c)

Keywords

Excluded fields (refused)

Related Decisions

None

Summary

The application relates to the field of asset tracing, and more particularly to business-to-business accounting of an asset pedigree. The invention provides systems and methods of generating a ‘trace history’ or ‘chain of custody document’ for an asset such as a pharmaceutical product.

The Hearing Officer applied the Aerotel/Macrossan four step test, considered the AT&T/CVON signposts and found that the identified contribution of the independent claims did not make a technical contribution and that the claims are excluded from patentability as a method of doing business and computer program as such. The application was refused under section 18(3).

Full decision O/1018/23 538Kb