Patent decision
- BL number
- O/241/08
- Concerning rights in
- GB0707711.8
- Hearing Officer
- Dr J E Porter
- Decision date
- 15 August 2008
- Person(s) or Company(s) involved
- CVON Innovations Limited
- Provisions discussed
- Patents Act 1977 section 1(2)
- Keywords
- Excluded fields (refused)
- Related Decisions
- O/240/08
Summary
The invention concerns a mobile telecommunications system which modifies messages sent between particular users over a communications network. The users may be members of one or more “groups” - such as an on-line discussion forum, club or society websites, or other such communities. Messages are modified on the basis of users’ membership of particular such groups, and further messages (back to the sender of the original message) are also generated. The modification to the message or the further message may, for example, be an advertisement or other promotional information relevant to the group membership of the sender or recipient.
The hearing officer followed the steps set out in Aerotel in order to determine whether the invention was excluded from patentability. Having considering the prior art and the interaction between the various features of the invention, he concluded that the contribution made by the invention lay in providing a method by which a party sending a message over a data communications network is sent a further message in the circumstances where the system determines that the sending party is not a member of a group of which the receiving party is a member.
He found that this contribution fell solely within excluded matter, as it was no more than a method for doing business and a program for a computer. Regardless of whether step four of the Aerotel test is an optional check or not, the hearing officer was in any event satisfied that the contribution made by the invention contained nothing which was technical in nature.
Full decision O/241/08 
43Kb
