Patent decision

BL number
O/172/08
Concerning rights in
GB0520969.7, GB0522995.0
Hearing Officer
Mr J Rowlatt
Decision date
20 June 2008
Person(s) or Company(s) involved
Yahoo! Inc
Provisions discussed
PA 1977 Section 1(2)(c)
Keywords
Excluded fields (refused)
Related Decisions
None

Summary

The applications both relate to parsing text entered into a search engine with comparison with geographical data to limit and refine the search to a likely geographical location, particularly in 0522995.0 whether the geographical location is local to the user.

The Hearing Officer applied the Aerotel/Macrossan test and decided that the actual contribution made by the invention fell solely within excluded matter. He also considered Symbian and, although it may not have been necessary to consider technical contribution, decided that the contribution was not technical in nature as set out in the fourth step of the Aerotel/Macrossan test. Both applications were refused as being programs for a computer.

Full decision O/172/08 PDF document49Kb