Patent decision

BL number
O/439/10
Concerning rights in
GB0723964.3
Hearing Officer
Mr B Micklewright
Decision date
23 December 2010
Person(s) or Company(s) involved
Protecting Kids the World Over (PKTWO) Limited
Provisions discussed
Patents Act 1977 section 1(2)
Keywords
Excluded fields (refused)
Related Decisions
None

Summary

The invention concerned a system for monitoring an electronic communication on the internet such as a chat room, e.g. being used by a child. Words and phrases in the electronic communication were matched with those stored in a dictionary in a hash table. An aggregate alert level was generated based on these matches, and a message was generated and sent to a user (e.g. a parent) if the alert level reached a certain level. The user could then send back a response indicating that one of a number of actions be taken in response to that alert. The hearing officer applied the Aerotel test and concluded that the actual contribution lay solely in the excluded field and was therefore excluded from patentability as a program for a computer as such and a mental act as such.

Full decision O/439/10 PDF document69Kb