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You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office Decisions >> IGT (Patent) [2007] UKIntelP o09907 (5 April 2007)
URL: http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKIntelP/2007/o09907.html
Cite as: [2007] UKIntelP o09907, [2007] UKIntelP o9907
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IGT [2007] UKIntelP o09907 (5 April 2007)
For the whole decision click here: o09907
Patent decision
- BL number
- O/099/07
- Concerning rights in
- GB0404737.9
- Hearing Officer
- Mr P Slater
- Decision date
- 5 April 2007
- Person(s) or Company(s) involved
- IGT
- Provisions discussed
- PA 1977 Section 1(2)
- Keywords
- Excluded fields (refused)
- Related Decisions
- None
Summary
This application relates to an electronic gaming machine such as a “slot machine” wherein players receive monetary awards which are displayed, for example, in the form of a three digit number. The player can then choose whether to keep the original award or to modify or gamble the award. A number of methods are provided for modifying the award, one of which is to re-arrange or scramble the original three digits to form a new number e.g. the digits 416 may be scrambled to become 614, 164 etc. Alternatively, the machine may modify the original award by regeneration i.e. generating a complete new set of digits, by adding or subtracting a digit, or by applying a predetermined multiplier.
The hearing officer held that the invention failed the third step of the Aerotel/Macrossan [2006] EWCA Civ 1371 test because the contribution, “a method selected and used to modify the award, and in particular the operation of regenerating or scrambling the digits to produce a new award”, related to no more than a scheme, rule or method for playing a game and a program for a computer as such.