Patent decision

BL number

O/148/19

Concerning rights in

GB1115638.7

Hearing Officer

Mr B Buchanan

Decision date

22 March 2019

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

Fisher-Rosemount Systems Inc

Provisions discussed

PA 1977 section 1(2)(c)

Keywords

Excluded fields (allowed)

Related Decisions

None

Summary

The present invention relates to process control systems, and specifically to managing process control search results by enabling a user to search for a control parameter within a process control system, and dynamically displaying relevant up to date runtime data associated with the parameter. The Hearing Officer followed the four step Aerotel test to determine whether there was a technical contribution. He applied the AT&T signposts as modified in HTC. The contribution was identified to include automatically updating and displaying runtime data in order to enable an operator to better control the system. Signpost (i) was found to be met on the basis that the contribution enabled giving visual indications automatically about the conditions prevailing in an apparatus or system. A further argument that signposts (ii) - (iv) were also satisfied because of the way the computer operated was rejected. The application was found to meet the requirements of section 1(2)(c) and was remitted to the Examiner for examination of the latest claims. Because the main request was found to be allowed under section 1(2), auxiliary requests were not considered.

Full decision O/148/19 356Kb