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United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office Decisions
You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office Decisions >> NDS Limited (Patent) [2007] UKIntelP o37207 (27 December 2007)
URL: http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKIntelP/2007/o37207.html
Cite as: [2007] UKIntelP o37207
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NDS Limited [2007] UKIntelP o37207 (27 December 2007)
For the whole decision click here: o37207
Patent decision
- BL number
- O/372/07
- Concerning rights in
- GB0224930.8
- Hearing Officer
- Mr A Bartlett
- Decision date
- 27 December 2007
- Person(s) or Company(s) involved
- NDS Limited
- Provisions discussed
- Patents Act Section 1(2)
- Keywords
- Excluded fields (refused)
- Related Decisions
- None
Summary
The application concerned a device allowing a member of the public to vote in a broadcast media event eg for a viewer to vote in a televised talent show. The device links a voting token to a voting event, the voting event itself being linked to the broadcast programme. If the conditions for voting are satisfied, then the vote is cast.
The hearing officer found that the hardware involved was entirely conventional and the actual contribution resided in the method that hardware was programmed to perform. Thus despite being claimed as a device, he decided that the contribution was excluded as a program for a computer and refused the application.