Patent decision

BL number
O/018/12
Concerning rights in
GB0624556.7
Hearing Officer
Mr H Jones
Decision date
20 January 2012
Person(s) or Company(s) involved
General Electric Company
Provisions discussed
Sections 1(2), 76(2)
Keywords
Added subject matter, Excluded fields (allowed)
Related Decisions
None

Summary

The application relates to a method of predicting the behaviour of a process using a computer program. It was accepted that predicting the behaviour of a process is excluded under section 1(2) as being a computer program as such, unless the prediction is used for control or diagnostic purposes. Amendments to the claims were proposed which would add a step to evaluate or optimise the process based on the prediction. Support for the proposed amendments was identified in the description. The Hearing Officer referred the application back to the examiner for continued processing.

Full decision O/018/12 PDF document28Kb