Patent decision

BL number

O/183/22

Concerning rights in

GB1419546.5

Hearing Officer

Mr S Brown

Decision date

3 March 2022

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

truRating Limited

Provisions discussed

PA 1977 Section 1(2)

Keywords

Excluded fields (refused)

Related Decisions

None

Summary

The application concerns a system for collecting customer ratings from a PIN entry device (PED). During a standard commercial transaction, the PED receives a PIN and then displays a question about a service associated with the transaction. The invention adds new software components which adapt the PED to capture these extra inputs without altering its proprietary software.

The Hearing Officer applied the Aerotel/Macrossan test and considered the signposts laid out in HTC v Apple. He decided that the contribution made by the invention was excluded as a program for a computer, and as a method of doing business, as such. The application was thus refused under section 18(3).

Full decision O/183/22 352Kb