Patent decision

BL number

O/020/19

Concerning rights in

GB1500399.9 & GB1604348.1

Hearing Officer

Mr P Mason

Decision date

11 January 2019

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

Tracy Buckland

Provisions discussed

Patents Act 1977 sections 1(1)(b), 3, 14(3), 76(2)

Keywords

Added subject matter, Inventive step, Sufficiency

Related Decisions

None

Summary

The applications each relate to a patient monitoring system comprising a wrist strap which communicates with a physician’s tablet or digital clipboard. The wrist strap comprises various sensors to monitor vital signs of the patient, and both the wrist strap and tablet have a wide range of functionality to support patient monitoring. The Hearing Officer found that the invention defined by claim 1 of GB1500399.9 would not have been obvious to a skilled person. However, he considered that claim 1 was a collocation of known or obvious parts, and therefore not inventive. The Hearing Officer also found that the claimed invention of GB1500399.9 was not sufficiently disclosed by the application as filed. Although amendment to make the claims of GB1500399.9 inventive may have been possible, the Hearing Officer considered that no amendment was possible that could provide a claimed invention that is sufficiently disclosed. The Hearing Officer therefore refused GB1500399.9. The Hearing Officer found that amendments to claim 2 of GB1604348.1, when correctly construed, did not add subject matter to the application. He also found that the invention defined by claim 1 of GB1604348.1 would not have been obvious to a skilled person, and nor was it a collocation of known or obvious parts. The Hearing Officer therefore remitted GB1604348.1 back to the examiner for further consideration.

Full decision O/020/19 305Kb