Patent decision

BL number

O/353/16

Concerning rights in

GB1405450.6

Hearing Officer

Dr J E Porter

Decision date

25 July 2016

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

Lionel Wolovitz

Provisions discussed

Section 1(2)(c)

Keywords

Excluded fields (refused)

Related Decisions

None

Summary

The invention concerns a system and method for brokering a transaction between a first party and a second party by use of a trusted transaction server (TTS). The transaction being brokered may in principle be any type of transaction and may include actions such as making a payment, withdrawal of money from an ATM, logging in to an online service, or other transactions between parties. The system is arranged such that the two parties do not share sensitive information with each other via a non-secure channel, such as the internet. Instead each party is authenticated with the TTS via a trusted communication channel, and only a non-sensitive transaction code is passed directly between the parties via the non-secure channel. The TTS receives the transaction code and brokers the transaction by requesting transaction details and supplying relevant information to the party responsible for approving the transaction.

The hearing officer followed the steps set out in Aerotel in order to determine whether the invention was excluded from patentability. He concluded that the contribution made by the invention lay not in providing a new or more secure system or network overall, but in steps that are taken to establish paths whereby particular information is exchanged in a particular order and a particular way. He found that the contribution circumvented, rather than solved, problems with passing sensitive data over a non-secure channel, and was not technical in nature. It was no more than a computer program per se. However, he did not agree that it amounted to a scheme, rule or method for doing business. The application was refused.

Full decision O/353/16 150Kb