Patent decision

BL number
O/316/15
Concerning rights in
GB 1115513.2
Hearing Officer
Mrs S E Chalmers
Decision date
7 July 2015
Person(s) or Company(s) involved
Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and Seoul National University R&DB Foundation
Provisions discussed
Section 1(1)(b)
Keywords
Inventive step
Related Decisions
None

Summary

The invention relates to session transfer between devices in a Converged Internet Protocol (CPM) messaging system. A user initially using a source device to communicate in a “first session”, via a call server, with a remote device, may wish to switch to a different (target) device to continue communicating with the remote device. The procedure is known as session transfer. The invention describes a method of session transfer, requested by the target device, which allows a seamless transfer (i.e. with no loss of messages) from source device to target device. This is achieved by setting up a second session and a third session between the call server and target device. The second session is used to transfer to the target device, a session history (all previously exchanged messages of the first session) and messages temporarily stored at the call server after receipt of the session transfer request. The third session is subsequently used to continue communicating with the remote device. Auxiliary amendments to the claims were offered at the hearing, specifying the further steps of receiving a first reply from the call server to the session transfer request and a second reply from the call server to the same session transfer request prior to establishing the third session.

The Hearing Officer followed the four steps of the Windsurfing/Pozzoli approach in determining whether the invention in its current form comprises an inventive step; and she found that it did not. She went on to consider the proposed amended claims in the same way, and found that they do comprise an inventive step. The application in its current form was refused. The applicant was allowed one month to formally file the proposed amendments.

Full decision O/316/15 PDF document83Kb