Patent decision

BL number

O/599/17

Concerning rights in

GB1405589.1

Hearing Officer

Mrs C L Davies

Decision date

28 November 2017

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

James Anthony Powell

Provisions discussed

PA 1977 Sections 1(2), 3 and 14(3)

Keywords

Excluded fields (refused), Inventive step, Sufficiency

Related Decisions

None

Summary

The application relates to a debit card characterised by the derivation of the number it bears and by being restricted to utility bill payments. On applying the Aerotel/Macrossan test, the Hearing Officer found that the invention claimed was excluded as a mathematical method as such and as a business method as such. The Hearing Officer also found that the invention was obvious in light of cited prior art and common general knowledge and that the application did not disclose the invention clearly and completely enough to be performed by a person skilled in the art. The application was refused.

Full decision O/599/17 141Kb