Patent decision

BL number

O/038/07

Concerning rights in

GB 0414111.5

Hearing Officer

Mr J Rowlatt

Decision date

2 February 2007

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

Peter Williams

Provisions discussed

PA 1977 Section 1(2)(c)

Keywords

Excluded fields (refused)

Related Decisions

None

Summary

The application relates to a method and system for providing information and personalized transaction benefits to a user about or relating to a product, based on a product identification code such as a bar code. The system stores personalized data about the user, but this information is shielded from a retail establishment. 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 business method and of a computer program. It was not formally 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/038/07 54Kb