Patent decision

BL number
O/415/10
Concerning rights in
GB0604622.1
Hearing Officer
Miss J Pullen
Decision date
1 December 2010
Person(s) or Company(s) involved
I2 Technologies US, Inc.
Provisions discussed
PA 1977 Section 1(2)(c)
Keywords
Excluded fields (refused)
Related Decisions
GB 0604820.1, GB 0604769 .0

Summary

The application relates generally to a program based supply chain management. Here the word "program" is not used directly in relation to a computer program but the program is in this sense is rather a definition of a relationship between trading partners, e.g. such as a manufacturer and a vendor. The invention essentially restricts access to data in the system to those who need to see it or action it, i.e. those defined by a particular trading partner program. The trading partner program may additionally be defined by other factors such as the location, the nature of the item to be traded or taxonomy.

In coming to her decision the Hearing Officer considered the decision in Symbian and

analysed the claims using the Areotel/Macrossan four step test. The Hearing Officer found that the contribution related to a method of doing business and was excluded under Section 1(2)(c) of the Act.

Full decision O/415/10 PDF document38Kb