Patent decision

BL number

O/327/07

Concerning rights in

GB0203654.9

Hearing Officer

Mr P Slater

Decision date

2 November 2007

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

Ewise.Com.Au Pty Ltd

Provisions discussed

PA 1977 Section 1(2)

Keywords

Excluded fields (refused)

Related Decisions

None

Summary

The invention concerns an arrangement for accessing over a computer network such as the Internet, secure sites which contain personal or financial information by employing an active content agent (ACA), which in the disclosed embodiment is a piece of software which when downloaded from the Internet runs on the user’s personal computer and accesses, for example, their bank account(s) on their behalf using passwords which are stored locally on their computer in an encrypted form. The advantages of this are there is no need for the user to remember their password(s) or to disclosure it to a third party.

The hearing officer held that the invention failed the third step of the Aerotel/Macrossan [2006] EWCA Civ 1371 test because the contribution, related to no more than a computer program as such.

Full decision O/327/07 45Kb