Patent decision

BL number

O/209/08

Concerning rights in

GB0608389.3

Hearing Officer

Mr J Rowlatt

Decision date

21 July 2008

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

Schlumberger Holdings Limited

Provisions discussed

PA 1977 Section 1(2)(c) and Section 76(2)

Keywords

Added subject matter, Excluded fields (refused)

Related Decisions

None

Summary

The application relates to an apparatus, method and system; following a user request concerning a particular type of data, database attributes stored in a data base are accessed and, according to predefined rules, processed to formulate a different particular type of data. Data-specific data access layers are used with attributes defined in meta-data.

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 any technical effect had already been considered, decided that the contribution was not technical in nature as might be required in the fourth step of the Aerotel/Macrossan test. The application was refused as being a program for a computer.

Full decision O/209/08 59Kb