Patent decision

BL number

O/444/15

Concerning rights in

GB 1206106.5

Hearing Officer

Mrs S E Chalmers

Decision date

22 September 2015

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

Derek Gordon Brown

Provisions discussed

PA 1977 sections 1(1)(c) and 14(3)

Keywords

Industrial application, Sufficiency

Related Decisions

None

Summary

The application relates to an apparatus for generating electricity employing an electric pump to raise a working liquid to a height, and subsequently using this liquid to generate electricity as it descends to the lower level. It comprises an elaborate arrangement of components which interact to move tanks and operate turbines in a scalable array of similar devices. The tanks rise and fall vertically, with liquid filling each tank in turn, the full tank descending under gravity and lifting the next empty tank before itself draining into a reservoir supplying a subsequent module. The hearing officer found that the invention operated in a manner clearly contrary to well-established physical laws. She refused the application on the grounds that the invention was incapable of industrial application and had not been described in a clear and complete enough manner for it to be performed by a person skilled in the art.

Full decision O/444/15 101Kb