Patent decision

BL number

O/811/22

Concerning rights in

GB1719887.0

Hearing Officer

Mr B Micklewright

Decision date

21 September 2022

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

Halliburton Energy Services, Inc.

Provisions discussed

Patents Act 1977 sections 1(1)(b), 1(1)(d), 1(2)

Keywords

Excluded fields (refused), Inventive step

Related Decisions

None

Summary

The invention related to using a cognitive computer to facilitate a meeting to discuss the placement of a new well in oilfield operations. The cognitive computer facilitates the meeting by automatically determining that a new well is being planned, as well as making a recommendation regarding an optimal drilling site. The hearing officer found that there was no synergy between two integers of the claim, and each integer was obvious over the cited prior art. The claim was therefore a collocation of obvious features and lacked an inventive step. The hearing officer also found that the invention was excluded from patentability as a program for a computer as such and a method of doing business as such. He therefore refused the application.

Full decision O/811/22 291Kb