Patent decision

BL number

O/198/07

Concerning rights in

GB0417719.2

Hearing Officer

Mr P Marchant

Decision date

16 July 2007

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

IGT

Provisions discussed

PA Act 1977 Section 1(2)

Keywords

Excluded fields (refused)

Related Decisions

None

Summary

The application is concerned with games such as poker in which a combination of cards makes up a winning hand, or slot machine symbols making a winning row. In the card variant, certain cards have associated with them other, different, cards; for example the seven of hearts could be associated with the ace of diamonds. When playing the game, if the player found the seven of hearts in his hand, and was able to remember that its associated card was the ace of diamonds, he would have the option of substituting one for the other to give himself a better hand. Similarly with slot machine symbols. The hearing officer applied the four part test set out in the Aerotel and Macrossan judgment, found the invention to be excluded as a method of playing a game, and refused the application.

Full decision O/198/07 39Kb