Patent decision

BL number

O/089/12

Concerning rights in

GB 0724403.1

Hearing Officer

Mr S Brown

Decision date

27 February 2012

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

Agilent Technologies Inc

Provisions discussed

PA 1977 Section 1(2)

Keywords

Excluded fields (refused)

Related Decisions

None

Summary

In this decision on the papers the invention related to managing the memory of a mass spectrometer computing system by purging infrequently used data objects when spare memory was running low while still keeping enough information to be able to recreate said objects should they be needed again. The Hearing Officer applied the Aerotel/Macrossan test and decided that the contribution made by the invention fell solely within excluded matter. He also considered the Court of Appeal decision in Symbian and the decision in AT&T & Cvon and concluded that the contribution did not have a relevant technical effect. Further, unlike the contributions in Vicom and Waters Investments (BL O/146/07), it did not result in better measurement data or an improved data processing method. The application was thus refused as no more than a program for a computer as such.

Full decision O/089/12 174Kb