Patent decision

Summary

Claim 2 concerned a method of manufacturing high fibre chapati and South

Asian naan in which wheat flour and white flour are replaced by a blend of a

certain range of percentages of wheat flour, barley flour, oat flour and inulin

prebiotic fibre. The application states the objective of the invention is to

produce healthier and better textured Indian breads. The examiner had cited

an Internet article which described a recipe for a chapati containing three

flours (oat, wheat and barley) as representative of the state of the art. There

was a dispute about the publication date of this article. The hearing officer

notionally accepted the examiner’s view about the publication date which did

not affect the outcome of his decision on inventive step. The examiner

considered it was obvious to add inulin to this chapati recipe as inulin was part

of the common general knowledge of the person skilled in this art. The hearing

officer applied the Windsurfer/Pozzoli test for inventive step and paid regard to

General Tire & Rubber Co v Firestone Tire & Rubber Co Ltd [1972] RPC 47

and to British Acoustic Films [1953] RPC 221 where the relevance of

scientific articles and common general knowledge was at issue. He found that

there was insufficient evidence before him to suggest that inulin was within the

common general knowledge of the person skilled in the art at the filing date.

He therefore found that claim 2 was not obvious. The hearing officer found that

claim 3 when dependent on claim 1 was unclear but not when dependent on

claim 2. The application was remitted to the examiner for further processing.

Full decision O/610/16 132Kb