Patent decision

BL number

O/205/07

Concerning rights in

GB0315237.8

Hearing Officer

Mr P Marchant

Decision date

23 July 2007

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

George Albert Skyner

Provisions discussed

PA Act 1977 Section 1(1)

Keywords

Inventive step, Novelty

Related Decisions

None

Summary

The invention is concerned with wall mounted light switches incorporating an electronic timer for switching the lights on and off. The timer can be set by push buttons or by a remote control unit and can be overridden by use of the normal light switch. The hearing officer considered novelty and obviousness of the claims in the light of prior art which had been cited by the examiner during the application process. He found that claims 1 and 7 lacked novelty and that all the claims lacked inventive step. There was no further disclosure in the specification upon which valid claims could be based. The application was therefore refused.

Full decision O/205/07 88Kb