Patent decision

BL number

O/282/07

Concerning rights in

EP(UK) 1532046

Hearing Officer

Mr R C Kennell

Decision date

25 September 2007

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

Lufthansa Technik AG v Barker Brettell

Provisions discussed

PA 1977 sections 3, 74B

Keywords

Inventive step, Opinions and Reviews

Related Decisions

OPINION 26/06

Summary

The patent related to an arrangement of photoluminescent markings to assist emergency evacuation down staircases in multi-deck aircraft, and the examiner’s opinion relied on the disclosure in one of the cited documents (D5) of a similar arrangement in ships to show lack of inventive step. The proprietor’s application for a review was contested by the requester of the opinion.

In a decision on the papers, the hearing officer did not accept the proprietor’s arguments (i) that the skilled person would not have considered documents relating to ships, (ii) that even if he had found D5 he would not have attached any weight to it, and (iii) that the examiner had in any case interpreted D5 incorrectly with the benefit of hindsight. Declining to set aside the opinion, the hearing officer held that the skilled person would look at documents relating to areas such as ships and buildings where, as with multi-deck aircraft, there was a need to use stairways for emergency evacuation; and that D5 although directed to requirements for ships also disclosed tests in buildings. He upheld the examiner’s interpretation of D5 as implicitly disclosing markings at both sides of the steps as required by the claims, even though this was not explicitly shown in the relevant drawing.