Patent decision

BL number

O/017/20

Concerning rights in

GB1522321.7

Hearing Officer

Mr B Buchanan

Decision date

13 January 2020

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

Lenovo (Singapore) Pte. Ltd.

Provisions discussed

PA 1977 section 1(2)(c)

Keywords

Excluded fields (allowed)

Related Decisions

None

Summary

The present invention relates to disambiguating user handwriting input to a computing device via a touchscreen; in other words to more closely match a detected user input with what was intended. It works by processing handwriting strokes to determine candidate input words, spell-checking these and then ranking the results based on combined weighted scores of both the candidate and spell-check words. A ranked list is displayed to a user and the top ranked result is provided as an input to a software application running on the device.

The Hearing Officer followed the four step Aerotel test to determine whether there was a technical contribution. He applied the relevant AT&T signposts as modified in HTC v Apple and the wider reasoning in that decision. He paid close attention to the breadth of the contribution and the field of endeavour as considered in Landmark Graphics. The contribution was found to provide the required technical effect and to meet the requirements of section 1(2)(c). The application was remitted to the examiner for processing under section 18(3) before grant.

Full decision O/017/20 319Kb