Patent decision
- BL number
- O/0263/24
- Concerning rights in
- GB2110810.5
- Hearing Officer
- Mr S Brown
- Decision date
- 27 March 2024
- Person(s) or Company(s) involved
- CORN PRODUCTS DEVELOPMENT, INC.
- Provisions discussed
- ??Sections 1(1) of the Patents Act1977?
- Keywords
- Inventive step, Novelty
- Related Decisions
- None
Summary
The application is concerned with producing a thermally inhibited corn starch product that has a specified range of whiteness. The Hearing Officer followed the decision in Raychem Corp’s Patents and found that since the claims were only distinguished from the prior art by obviously desirable parameters they lacked the required inventive step.
The Hearing Officer also applied Kirin-Amgen and decided that a product by process claim should be construed as being to the product itself and thus lacked novelty.
However, as the Hearing Officer identified a possible saving amendment, the applicants were given 28 days to amend. If they do, the case will be remitted to the examiner. Otherwise, it will be refused under section 18(3).
Full decision O/0263/24 
230Kb
