Patent decision

BL number

O/441/12

Concerning rights in

GB1001078.3

Hearing Officer

Mr A Bartlett

Decision date

12 November 2012

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

Hewlett-Packard Development Company L.P.

Provisions discussed

PA 1977 Section 1(2)

Keywords

Excluded fields (refused)

Related Decisions

None

Summary

The invention addresses the problem of how to optimise postage costs for printed items. It uses pre-stored print characteristics (e.g. weight of various paper types, covers, staples etc.) to allow the weight of an item to be calculated prior to printing. These characteristics can then be modified to produce a printed item with an optimised postage weight. At the hearing the Hearing Officer was asked to consider the scope of the exclusions in relation to Vicom and Halliburton. It was also put to the Hearing Officer that the step of printing was a crucial element of the contribution without which the concept of “weight” was meaningless, thus distinguishing the application from e.g. Macrossan’s application. The Hearing Officer applied the Aerotel/Macrossan test and also considered the judgement in Symbian. After considering the need not to elevate the form of a claim above its substance (following Aerotel) and the relevance of the Vicom and Halliburton judgements to the current application, the Hearing Officer concluded that the invention did not make a technical contribution and refused the application as relating to a method for doing business and a program for a computer as such.

Full decision O/441/12 68Kb