Decision Nº O/184/15 from Intellectual Property Office - (Patent decisions), 16 April 2015

JudgeDr L Cullen
CourtIntellectual Property Office (United Kingdom)
Date16 April 2015
Administrative Decision NumberO/184/15
Patent NumberGB1222096.8
PartiesSupercell Oy
BL O/184/15
16 April 2015
APPLICANT
Supercell Oy
ISSUE
whether patent application GB1222096.8 complies
with section 1(2) of the Act
HEARING OFFICER
Dr L Cullen
DECISION
Introduction
1 This decision concerns patent application GB1222096.8 entitled System and
Method for Controlling Technical Processes" and whether the invention as claimed in
this application relates to excluded matter as defined in Section 1(2) of the Patents
Act 1977 (hereinafter the Act).
2 The application was filed on 10th December 2012, claiming an earliest priority date of
12th April 2012. It was published as GB2501145A on 16th October 2013. A
divisional application, GB1409299.3, was filed 26th May 2014 relating to claims in the
present application identified as defining a second invention. The Section 20
compliance period is due to expire on 12th October 2016.
3 Accelerated processing of the application was requested by telephone on 8th
January 2013. A combined search and examination report was accordingly issued
on 29th January 2013, in which, amongst other things, two separate inventions were
identified as being defined in the original claims, and both were objected to as being
excluded from patentability as the presentation of information and as a program for a
computer.
4 A response from the Applicant was filed on 21st May 2014 in which claims relating to
the second identified invention were deleted (to be filed in the divisional application,
as noted above), and arguments were presented regarding the patentability of the
retained invention. A further examination report of 8th July 2014 maintained the
excluded matter objection.
5 In a response dated 25th October 2014 further arguments were presented, and a
hearing was requested. This response also included a set of claims in an Annex 3
which were identified as those granted for the US equivalent application. A letter
from the Examiner of 28th November 2014 set out the outstanding objections to be
considered at the requested hearing, primarily exclusion from patentability as the

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