Patent decision

BL number

O/208/04

Concerning rights in

GB0002179.0

Hearing Officer

Mr H Jones

Decision date

15 July 2004

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

Applied Psychology Research Limited

Provisions discussed

PA 1977 sections 1(2) and 130(7)

Keywords

Excluded fields (refused)

Related Decisions

None

Summary

The application relates to computer apparatus for determining the price of a contract on the basis of the total number of indications to participate in an Internet based bulk purchasing scheme. In order to encourage individuals to register their intentions to participate early, a financial incentive is offered by way of a lower price at the start of the scheme as compared to the end. In refusing the application , the hearing officer found that the invention was concerned merely with providing an improved transactional process over a computer network and therefore fell within the exclusions from patentability, both as a business method and a computer program for its implementation. The hearing officer went on to find that the invention did not provide a technical contribution required to make an otherwise excluded invention patentable.

Full decision O/208/04 50Kb