Patent decision

BL number
O/632/20
Concerning rights in
GB1903870.2
Hearing Officer
Mr B Buchanan
Decision date
15 December 2020
Person(s) or Company(s) involved
QCIC Ltd
Provisions discussed
Patents Act 1977 section 1(2)(c) & 76(2)
Keywords
Excluded fields (refused)
Related Decisions
None

Summary

The claimed invention relates to a method of identifying and programming devices to be installed in an environment, such as access control devices in a building, and a system for doing the same. Firstly the Hearing Officer considered whether amendments to the claims made upon entering the national phase constituted added matter and concluded that they did not, because after reading the original specification, which used different terminology in parts, and considering how the invention would be implemented in practice, the skilled person would learn nothing new from the amended claims.

Finally the Hearing Officer followed the four step Aerotel/Macrossan test to determine whether there was a technical contribution and considered the AT&T signposts. The identified contribution was not found to provide the required technical effect and the claimed invention was found to relate solely to a program for a computer as such, so the application did not meet the requirements of section 1(2)(c). The application was refused under section 18(3).

Full decision O/632/20 PDF document268Kb