Patent decision

BL number

O/423/11

Concerning rights in

GB 0723276.2

Hearing Officer

Mr S Brown

Decision date

28 November 2011

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

Really Virtual Company Ltd.

Provisions discussed

PA 1977 Section 1(2)

Keywords

Excluded fields (refused)

Related Decisions

None

Summary

The application relates to a method of allowing a user access to tailored services on the web whilst maintaining their anonymity. This is achieved by placing the user in one or more sets, the size and nature of these sets being such as to maintain anonymity while also allowing certain user characteristics to be determined.

The Hearing Officer applied the Aerotel/Macrossan test and decided that the contribution made by the invention fell solely within excluded matter. He also considered the Court of Appeal decision in Symbian and the decision in AT&T & Cvon and concluded that the contribution did not have a relevant technical effect. The application was refused as being a program for a computer as such.

Full decision O/423/11 62Kb