Decision Nº O/202/06 from Intellectual Property Office - (Patent decisions), 21 July 2006
| Judge | Mr P Slater |
| Court | Intellectual Property Office (United Kingdom) |
| Date | 21 July 2006 |
| Patent Number | GB0114557.2 |
| Administrative Decision Number | O/202/06 |
| Parties | Knowledge Support Systems Limited |
BL O/202/06
21 July 2006
APPLICANT Knowledge Support Systems Limited
ISSUE Whether patent application number
GB 0114557.2 relates to a patentable
invention
HEARING OFFICER
P R Slater
DECISION
Introduction
1 Patent application GB 0114557.2 entitled “Modelling method” was filed on 14
June 2001 in the name of Knowledge Support Systems Limited. The
application was published as GB2380000 on 26 March 2003.
2 The first examination report was issued on 28 July 2004. There followed an
additional three rounds of correspondence throughout which the examiner
reported that the invention was excluded from patentability under section 1(2)
as being a method of doing business, a mathematical method and/or a
computer program as such.
3 Having been unable to resolve the issue through either amendment or
argument, the matter came before me to decide at a hearing on 31 January
2006 at which the applicant was represented by Mr Mark Kenrick of Marks &
Clerk.
4 Following the hearing, Mr Kenrick filed two additional written submissions on
the 13 February 2006 and 10 April 2006 respectively.
The Application
5 The application relates to a computer apparatus for generating a model of the
relationship between the products sold for example by a supermarket, the
model then being used to create a pricing structure. However, because of the
large number of products and relationships involved, it has proven difficult to
generate an accurate model using widely available computing power. This
problem could be solved by reducing the number of products and relationships
used to generate the model, but this will inevitably result in a reduction in the
accuracy of the model.
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