Patent decision
- BL number
- O/029/06
- Concerning rights in
- GB 2294077
- Hearing Officer
- Mr R Walker
- Decision date
- 27 January 2006
- Person(s) or Company(s) involved
- The British Precast Concrete Federation Limited v Coventry University
- Provisions discussed
- PA.Sections 1, 27, 76
- Keywords
- Added subject matter, Amendment, Clarity, Delay, Inventive step, Novelty
- Related Decisions
- O/111/05
Summary
A request to amend was opposed on the grounds that (a) the proposed amendments (i) did not distinguish what was claimed from prior art jointly authored by the inventor, (ii) were not clear and (iii) added subject matter by deletion, and (b) discretion to amend should be withheld.
On the hearing officers construction of the expression 'slot-like' he found that claim 1, as it was proposed to amend it, was novel, inventive and clear, and that a request to delete a figure would have no affect on the scope of claim 1 and so did not add subject matter. Nevertheless, the hearing officer found that the patentees failure to make the whole story known, the patentees attempts to gain an unfair advantage from the patent and the patentees culpability for the delay in requesting the amendment provided compelling reasons for refusing the amendments.
Full decision O/029/06 205Kb