Patent decision

BL number

O/461/17

Concerning rights in

GB1521897.7

Hearing Officer

Mr B Buchanan

Decision date

26 September 2017

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

ProProcure Limited

Provisions discussed

Section 1(2)

Keywords

Excluded fields (refused)

Related Decisions

None

Summary

The application addresses problems associated with object-oriented programs being required to interrogate a relational database when they are not compatible with each other. The solution provided uses a Query Planner module within a data access layer to process a query string expressed as a Domain Model Request into one or more queries; the data access layer also includes an Object Relational Mapping processing module which executes the one or more queries against a database in a single transaction. This reduces redundant queries and hence optimises the processor resources necessary to return the query response. The Hearing Officer followed the four step test in Aerotel/Macrossan and found that the alleged contribution was implemented by a program for a computer. The Applicant argued that the alleged technical contribution of the invention satisfied AT&T signposts (ii) - (v), and that determination of whether the computer actually operated in a new way could not be properly established without a search of the prior art. The Hearing Officer considered the alleged new operation and corresponding contribution for each of AT&T signposts (ii) - (v) and found that the computer operates conventionally, running under the instruction of an allegedly new program. In so doing it may process data in a new way within the application layer, but it operates conventionally at the architectural level. The Hearing Officer found that there was no technical contribution and found the application to be excluded under section 1(2) as a program for a computer as such.

Full decision O/461/17 98Kb