Patent decision

BL number

O/298/17

Concerning rights in

GB1203886.5

Hearing Officer

Mr A Bartlett

Decision date

28 June 2017

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

Thomas Michael Anderson

Provisions discussed

Patents Act 1977 section 1(2)(c)

Keywords

Excluded fields (refused)

Related Decisions

None

Summary

The application relates to an educational puzzle that aims to improve familiarity with the five vowels in the English language. An incomplete anagram is presented to the user as a set of scrambled letters which requires an additional vowel to be added before the anagram can be solved. To guide the user to select the correct additional vowel, a short story which contains the completed anagram accompanies the puzzle. In the main embodiment, the puzzle is presented in a booklet using temporarily attachable vowels and width shortened, removable pages on which to record the solution to the anagram.

Applying the Aerotel test, the hearing officer concluded that the contribution fell solely within excluded matter as it related to the rules of playing the particular game. In addition, upon reviewing the application as a whole, the hearing officer concluded there were no possible amendments which could support a patentable claim, since any apparatus used to play the game was already known. The application was refused for failing to comply with section 1(2)(c).

Full decision O/298/17 80Kb