Patent decision

BL number
O/247/11
Concerning rights in
GB2432573
Hearing Officer
Mr A C Howard
Decision date
15 July 2011
Person(s) or Company(s) involved
David Rose and Ability International Limited
Provisions discussed
Patents Act 1977 Section 37
Keywords
Entitlement
Related Decisions
None

Summary

The patent relates to equipment to allow overhead access especially over desks in open-plan offices where space is limited. The registered proprietor and defendant is a company in the business of supplying specialised access equipment. The claimant’s case was that he had devised the invention and communicated it to the defendant at a meeting at which the claimant’s requirements for over-desk access had been discussed. The patent application had been filed after this meeting. Subsequently, following representations by the claimant, the defendant had agreed to add the claimant’s name as a co-inventor, but he was not included as a joint applicant. In response to the claim in these proceedings, the defendant denied that the claimant had in fact contributed anything to the inventive concept, and regretted the decision to add him as a co-inventor. The hearing officer, in rejecting the claim, applied the principles in Henry Brothers (Magherafelt) Ltd v Ministry of Defence [1997] RPC 706, determining that the inventive concept lay in the combination of elements which, together, solved the problem posed, and that the claimant had not contributed to the making of that combination.

Full decision O/247/11 PDF document155Kb