Patent decision

BL number

O/069/07

Concerning rights in

GB 0423857.2

Hearing Officer

Mr J Rowlatt

Decision date

5 March 2007

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

Sony Electronics, Inc.

Provisions discussed

PA 1977 Section 1(2)(c)

Keywords

Excluded fields (refused)

Related Decisions

None

Summary

The application relates to a system and method for distributing content within a peer-to-peer network in which metadata associated with the content includes an electronic tag providing credits allocated for sharing content (data acting as an identifier of the extent of authorization to share content) and data defining a transaction, or link to a transaction, by which that authorization to share is allocated (distribution data, usage data, sales data, or simply the sharing of content). 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/069/07 35Kb