Patent decision

BL number

O/014/07

Concerning rights in

GB 0502642.2.

Hearing Officer

Mr D J Barford

Decision date

12 January 2007

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

New Constructs LLC

Provisions discussed

PA 1977 section 1(2)

Keywords

Excluded fields (refused)

Related Decisions

None

Summary

The application relates to analyzing accounting data in order to obtain economic profitability information. It is particularly directed towards correcting for accounting distortions in reported company information, and using the corrected data to evaluate the true value of a company. The systems and methods described have particular application in decision-making in the field of investments.

Applying the four-step approach to the assessment of patentability under section 1(2) approved by the Court of Appeal in Aerotel/Macrossan [2006] EWCA Civ 1371, the hearing officer concluded that that the claimed invention is excluded from patentability under section 1(2) as a method of doing business as such, and that the invention as claimed in certain of the claims is additionally excluded from patentability as a program for a computer or the presentation of information as such. He could see no subject matter in the application that could be used to remedy this and refused the application under section 18(3).

Full decision O/014/07 34Kb