Patent decision

BL number

O/202/06

Concerning rights in

GB0114557.2

Hearing Officer

Mr P Slater

Decision date

21 July 2006

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

Knowledge Support Systems Limited

Provisions discussed

PA 1977 Section 1(2)(c)

Keywords

Excluded fields (refused)

Related Decisions

None

Summary

The application relates to a computer for generating a model of the relationship between the products sold for example by a supermarket, the model then being used to create a pricing structure. However, because of the large number of products and relationships involved, it is difficult to generate an accurate model using widely available computing power. The invention seeks to overcome this problem by modelling only a limited set of the most significant products and their inter-relationships. This is achieved by nominating category flag products, which are regarded as the most significant by the retailer and which are likely to affect the demand and price of products in a particular category. A simplified model is then generated by modelling only the relationship between products in the same category and those nominated as category flag products.

In refusing the application, the hearing officer concluded that the invention was nothing more than a program for instructing a computer to process information regarding the relationship between retail products in a non-technical manner. Whilst the model could be generated more quickly and the processing speed enhanced this was achieved by modelling less data, not by any technical means which might otherwise have saved it from exclusion. The hearing officer went on to consider whether the invention related to a mathematical method and concluded that in the absence of any technical application or contribution, that the invention was excluded as such.

Full decision O/202/06 37Kb