Patent decision
- BL number
- O/145/04
- Concerning rights in
- GB2236610
- Hearing Officer
- Mr S N Dennehey
- Decision date
- 25 May 2004
- Person(s) or Company(s) involved
- Yeoman Group plc v Trevor Evan Parry
- Provisions discussed
- PA 1977 section 72(1)(a)
- Keywords
- Excluded fields (refused), Inventive step, Novelty, Revocation
- Related Decisions
- None
Summary
The patent relates to a sequence of maps to different scales aimed assisting a user in navigating from a remote location to a particular destination. Yeoman Group plc contended that the patent should be revoked for lack of novelty and inventive step on the basis of various prior art maps and atlases and on the evidence of the common knowledge of a person of ordinary skill in the field of cartography before the priority date of the patent. Yeoman Group also argued that the patent relates to nothing more than a literary or artistic work or the presentation of information. The patentee filed three sets of amended claims to be considered if the claims in the granted form were found to lack novelty and inventive step. The hearing officer held that the claims of the patent as granted and as proposed lacked novelty and inventive step, and did not need to consider in detail the further ground for revocation, namely exclusion under section 1(2).
Full decision O/145/04 195Kb