Patent decision

BL number
O/177/13
Concerning rights in
GB 1006801.3
Hearing Officer
Mrs S E Chalmers
Decision date
30 April 2013
Person(s) or Company(s) involved
Sony Corporation and Sony Electronics Inc.
Provisions discussed
PA 1977, Section 1(2)
Keywords
Excluded fields (refused)
Related Decisions
None

Summary

The invention is a computer-implemented method for determining and communicating a customer service recommendation in response to problems encountered in the use of an electronic device when interacting with other devices or services. For example, a portable music player made by one manufacturer may encounter difficulties when attempting to play songs downloaded from an Internet service provider. These difficulties are compounded when multiple devices and services interact as it may not be possible to isolate the problem because the customer care services of the manufacturer and provider only have access to their own transaction information for the device or service. The solution offered by the invention is the provision of a repository infrastructure to store all transaction information to allow one manufacturer or provider - on permission of the user using secure ID - to access and review transactions that occurred with other manufacturers or service providers. In this way, the problem can be identified and the user informed of the steps needed to rectify the problem.

The Hearing Officer applied the four step test set out in Aerotel/Macrossan in the light of the Symbian and Halliburton judgements. She found the invention as claimed was excluded under Section 1(2) because it related solely to excluded matter, namely to a computer program and a business method as such. First and second auxiliary claims were also considered, but these were also found not to define a patentable invention. The application was refused.

Full decision O/177/13 PDF document82Kb