Patent decision

BL number

O/758/18

Concerning rights in

GB1808397.2

Hearing Officer

Miss J Pullen

Decision date

27 November 2018

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

Blackhawk Network, Inc. et al

Provisions discussed

Section 1(2)(c)

Keywords

Excluded fields (refused)

Related Decisions

None

Summary

The claims relate to conducting transactions using transaction card package assemblies, which comprise a card holder containing one or more transaction cards and a sample product. The transaction cards may be credit or debit cards, gift cards, prepaid cards, membership or loyalty cards, etc and are typically activated at a point of sale terminal. The sample may be an actual product or a coupon, which may be exchanged for a product or a service, and is distributed free of charge, packaged along with the transaction card.

The Hearing Officer applied the Aerotel/Macrossan four step test, considered the reformulated AT&T/CVON signposts and found that the contribution fell within the excluded category of a method for doing business and a computer program as such. The application was refused under S18(3).

Full decision O/758/18 77Kb