Decision Nº O/913/21 from Intellectual Property Office - (Patent decisions), 16 December 2021
| Judge | Mr B Micklewright |
| Court | Intellectual Property Office (United Kingdom) |
| Administrative Decision Number | O/913/21 |
| Date | 16 December 2021 |
| Patent Number | GB1616110.1 |
| Parties | The Nielson Company (US), LLC |
BL O/913/21
16 December 2021
PATENTS ACT 1977
APPLICANT
The Nielsen Company (US), LLC
ISSUE
Whether patent application number GB 1616110.1
complies with section 1(2)
HEARING OFFICER
Mr B Micklewright
DECISION
Background
1 Patent application number GB1616110.1 is the national phase application based on
PCT application number PCT/US2014/068623, filed on 14 December 2014 and with
a declared priority date of 13 March 2014. It was filed in the name of The Nielsen
Company (US), LLC. The international application was published as WO
2015/138016 A1 and was assigned the UK publication number GB 2539588 A.
2 This decision addresses whether the claimed invention is excluded from patentability
under section 1(2)(c) of the Patents Act 1977 (“the Act”) as a method of doing
business and as a computer program as such.
3 The examiner from the outset considered the claims to relate to a program for a
computer as such and to a business method. There have been several rounds of
observations and amendments filed during the examination process. There are no
outstanding issues with regards to the inventiveness of the invention as claimed,
although I note that the search has not been updated. The applicant and the
examiner could not reach an agreement on the question of excluded subject matter
and the application was therefore referred for a hearing. Issues to be decided at the
hearing were set out by the examiner in their latest examination report of 4 June
2021. I thank the agent for submitting pre-hearing summary observations in
advance of the hearing. The matter came before me at a hearing on 28 September
2021 at which Mr Barry Moore of the firm Hanna Moore + Curley represented the
applicant. I confirm that in reaching my decision I have considered all the
correspondence on file and the arguments and observations made at the hearing.
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