Patent decision

BL number
O/357/20
Concerning rights in
GB1620705.2
Hearing Officer
Mr P Mason
Decision date
21 July 2020
Person(s) or Company(s) involved
The Boeing Company
Provisions discussed
Patents Act 1977 section 1(1)(1) (b)
Keywords
Inventive step
Related Decisions
None

Summary

The application relates to a method of quantifying porosity of a composite structure test part. The invention utilises infra-red thermographic techniques to determine thermal test data of a part. The test data is compared to reference data indicative of perceived part thickness. Porosity is determined by comparison of known thickness with perceived thickness. The hearing officer followed the Windsurfing/Pozzoli steps and considered the common general knowledge of the skilled person. The hearing officer found the inventive concept shared by the claims was inventive when considering the prior art cited by the examiner and the assessed common general knowledge of the skilled person. The application was remitted to the examiner to conclude the processing.

Full decision O/357/20 PDF document309Kb