Patent decision

BL number

O/465/14

Concerning rights in

GB 2469554

Hearing Officer

Mr J Elbro

Decision date

30 October 2014

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

Mr Guy Jackson-Ebben and Wine Innovations Ltd and Mr James Nash

Provisions discussed

Patents Act 1977 Sections 8, 12, and 37

Keywords

Entitlement

Related Decisions

None

Summary

The claimant sought entitlement to a patent relating to a particular method of evacuating the headspace of a pre-filled wine goblet by means of a nitrogen injection. The claimant had previously had an association with the defendants and worked on improving the operation of a previous machine, during which time he claimed to have invented the invention in the patent.

The hearing officer found that the invention was already embodied in the previous version of the machine, and hence that the invention had been already made by the time of the claimant’s involvement.

The claimant also raised a number of other issues about whether the patent was invalid for prior disclosure, or the defendants were not entitled to it, but the hearing officer found there was insufficient evidence to justify any such conclusions.

Full decision O/465/14 665Kb