Patent decision

BL number

O/274/04

Concerning rights in

GB0106968.1

Hearing Officer

Mr B Westerman

Decision date

7 September 2004

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

Alan Derek Dean

Provisions discussed

PA sections 1(1), 1(2)

Keywords

Excluded fields (refused), Inventive step, Novelty

Related Decisions

None

Summary

The invention concerns a method and system for providing a set of standardised electronic mail addresses by obtaining name and location information of individuals in a geographic region, providing name and location codes, including at least one address indicator and a telephone area code indicator, for each individual, generating a standardised electronic mail address for each individual from the name code and the location code, providing a database and search engine for searching the database using the location code and the personal name code to locate the electronic mail address. This was said to have the advantages of less ambiguity and consistency in locating the proper electronic mail address for an individual.

Excluded field. It was held that the substance of the invention lay in the intellectual decisions made as to what to record and make available for search, with no technical contribution to the art. The application was refused under section 1(2)(c) as a scheme, rule or method as such for performing a mental act or doing business. However, it was held that the application was not excluded by section 1(2)(d) as not being the presentation of information as such

Novelty; Inventive step. The examiner had cited two documents as demonstrating lack of novelty and/or inventive step; and two further documents as demonstrating lack of inventive step. The hearing officer held that the majority of the claims were not novel and/or inventive in the light of the first two documents, but that the second two were not such as to render the invention lacking in inventive step.