Patent decision

BL number

O/547/21

Concerning rights in

GB1419316.3

Hearing Officer

Mr B Micklewright

Decision date

21 July 2021

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

Walmart Apollo, LLC

Provisions discussed

Patents Act 1977 Sections 1(1)(d), 1(2)

Keywords

Excluded fields (refused)

Related Decisions

None

Summary

The invention related to making payments for items purchased by online orders as in-store point-of-sale (“POS”) payments. It reduced the potential for abuse or fraud by restricting which items were eligible for in-store POS payments based on classification of the item, quantity, and cost of the item. It also evaluated whether the refund activity of a customer indicated abusive activity and, based on this, limited the payment of refunds to stores within a threshold proximity from the store from which the acknowledgment of payment at the POS was received. The hearing officer found that the contribution lay solely in the excluded fields of a method of doing business as such and a program for a computer a such and therefore refused the application.

Full decision O/547/21 93Kb