Patent decision

BL number

O/412/19

Concerning rights in

GB1513401.8

Hearing Officer

Dr L Cullen

Decision date

17 July 2019

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

Adobe Systems Inc

Provisions discussed

Section 1(2)

Keywords

Excluded fields (refused)

Related Decisions

None

Summary

The invention relates to a method and system to facilitate improved commissioning of marketing content based on attributes of content previously created by potential content providers. This allows a marketer to commission new content from creators that have previously created content of the type the marketer wants for a particular marketing activity.

The hearing officer, applying the Aerotel/Macrossan four step test, found that the application as claimed was excluded as a business method. The contribution was found to be the use of known search techniques to automate the selection of content creators for a marketing campaign, this was found to be nothing more than a business process and not technical in nature.

As the method would be implemented by a program for a computer, the signposts set out in AT&T, as modified in HTC v Apple, were subsequently considered to determine whether the computer program nevertheless made a contribution that was technical. No technical contribution was found.

The application was refused under section 18(3) of the Act.

Full decision O/412/19 327Kb