Patent decision

BL number

O/513/01

Concerning rights in

GB 9711337.7

Hearing Officer

Mr D Jerreat

Decision date

16 November 2001

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

Leslie Adrian Alfred Woolard

Provisions discussed

PA 1977 section 2(3)

Keywords

Withdrawal

Related Decisions

O/260/01

Summary

The application was completely anticipated by a previous application from the same applicant that fell in the section 2(3) field but had been withdrawn before the date of publication but after the preparations for publication were complete. The agent argued that its withdrawal before publication meant that it should not be considered to be a published application in the terms of section 2(3). This was the view taken by the European Patent Office in their Guidelines, based on a decision of a Legal Board of Appeal (EPO Decision J 5/81), which should be compelling on the examiner. The examiner argued, and the hearing officer confirmed, that the Patents Act 1977 has no provision to exempt such applications from the state of the art provided by section 2(3). The application in suit was thus completely anticipated by the presence of the earlier application in the section 2(3) field, and was refused.

Full decision O/513/01 28Kb