Patent decision
- BL number
- O/490/16
- Concerning rights in
- GB1015890.5 & GB1019647.5
- Hearing Officer
- Mr H Jones
- Decision date
- 21 October 2016
- Person(s) or Company(s) involved
- Fisher-Rosemount Systems, Inc.
- Provisions discussed
- Sections 1(2)(c), 1(2)(d), Rules 107, 108
- Keywords
- Excluded fields (refused)
- Related Decisions
- None
Summary
The applications relate to displaying additional information on a terminal of a process control system for a process plant. The terminal may be used by a plant operator, who can control aspects of the plant operation via the terminal, or it may be used by a maintenance or other engineer who cannot control the plant but is nevertheless interested in information relating to the operation and configuration of the plant.
GB1015890.5 describes a system for providing further information on the terminal by means of dynamic hyperlinks. A database of dynamic hyperlinks is defined linking process control objects to knowledge reference information. When a particular display view is initiated and created for display on a terminal, the dynamic hyperlinks are inserted into the display view based on the process control objects appearing in the view. These can then be selected to display the relevant knowledge reference information.
GB 1019647.5 describes a system for displaying additional information in the form of status rollups. In particular, the system automatically generates a summary list of status issues related to process control components based upon filters selected by a user. The selectable status issues could be alarms, messages, abnormal conditions, configuration errors, etc., with particular emphasis being given to the generation of status rollups relating to alarms.
The Hearing Officer found in both cases that the contribution fell within the excluded categories of computer program and presentation of information and refused the two applications under section 18(3). It was necessary to extend the compliance period under rule 107 by a few days due to an irregularity in office procedure.
Full decision O/490/16 
341Kb
