Patent decision

BL number

O/494/18

Concerning rights in

GB1621211.0

Hearing Officer

Dr L Cullen

Decision date

9 August 2018

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

Google LLC

Provisions discussed

Sections 1(2)

Keywords

Excluded fields (refused)

Related Decisions

None

Summary

The application relates to a method of providing users of mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets and the like with information in areas with limited or non-existent access to wireless networks. Analysis is carried out to identify content which two or more users have previously viewed at a specific location and when an indication is received that another user may be travelling to the same location, e.g. through positioning data or navigation requests from the user’s device, the previously identified content is transmitted to the other user. The location-specific information can then be temporarily stored on the user’s phone so that it can be accessed if the user arrives at the location without the need to connect to a network.

The hearing officer applied the Aerotel/Macrossan four step test and found that the invention as claimed was excluded as being a program for a computer. The signposts set out in AT&T, as modified in HTC v Apple, were subsequently considered to determine whether the computer program nevertheless made a contribution that was technical. The applicant argued that the contribution acted to solve the problem of providing users with required information at a location, but the hearing officer held that the problem being addressed was one of poor network reception at a location and that the contribution acted to circumvent rather than solve this problem because information about the location was loaded on the device prior to arriving at the location.

The application was refused under section 18(3) of the Act.

Full decision O/494/18 195Kb