Patent decision

BL number

O/149/07

Concerning rights in

GB 0514158.5

Hearing Officer

Mr J Elbro

Decision date

1 June 2007

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

Fisher-Rosemount Systems Inc

Provisions discussed

PA Act 1977 Section 1(2)

Keywords

Excluded fields (refused)

Related Decisions

O/148/07, O/150/07, O/151/07, O/152/07

Summary

The application related to the configuration of a process control system, allowing new process flow modules to be created by assembling program objects representing components of the process. The hearing officer followed 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 in determining whether the invention was excluded from patentability. He held that as the applicant had accepted that there was not necessarily any new process flow modules being created which could not be created by conventional programming, the contribution made by the invention was a program which made it easier to modify a control system. He therefore held that the invention was excluded from patentability as it was a computer program as such.

Full decision O/149/07 56Kb