Patent decision

BL number

O/031/07

Concerning rights in

GB0421741.0

Hearing Officer

Mr B Westerman

Decision date

29 January 2007

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba

Provisions discussed

PA 1977 sections 1(2)(c)

Keywords

Excluded fields (refused)

Related Decisions

None

Summary

The application relates to a computer-aided design tool intended for use in designing, for example, nuclear or thermal power plants. A three-dimensional CAD system includes a parts table in spreadsheet format, and an arrangement adjusting unit and a parts editor to change the data stored about the parts using data about sub-parts. The Hearing Officer considered the recent Court of Appeal judgment in Aerotel/Macrossan and decided that the actual contribution made by the invention fell solely within the meaning of a computer program. It was not necessary to consider whether the contribution was technical in nature as set out in the fourth step of the Aerotel/Macrossan test. The application was refused.

Full decision O/031/07 24Kb