Patent decision

BL number

O/503/21

Concerning rights in

GB1217066.8

Hearing Officer

Mr B Buchanan

Decision date

1 July 2021

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

Andres Kruse & Elaine Kruse

Provisions discussed

Patents Act 1977 sections 1(2)(c) & (d)

Keywords

Excluded fields (refused)

Related Decisions

None

Summary

The claimed invention relates to the selective reduction of information presented to a reader on the screen of a device, by displaying only the first sentence of each paragraph, until a user action indicates a full paragraph is to be displayed. As well as advantages for the user in assisting their intuitive interpretation of content, the invention allegedly also reduces the processing power and extends the battery life of the device.

The Hearing Officer followed the four step Aerotel/Macrossan test to determine whether there was a technical contribution and considered the AT&T signposts. The identified contribution was not found to provide the required technical effect and the claimed invention was found to relate solely to a program for a computer and the presentation of information as such, so the application did not meet the requirements of section 1(2). The application was refused under section 18(3).

Full decision O/503/21 132Kb