Patent decision

BL number

O/080/08

Concerning rights in

GB 0604560.3

Hearing Officer

Mr H Jones

Decision date

17 March 2008

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

Fisher-Rosemount Systems, Inc

Provisions discussed

PA 1977 section 1(2)

Keywords

Excluded fields (refused)

Related Decisions

None

Summary

The claims related to a method of approving software objects for installation in a safety instrumented system coupled to a process control system. In use, a request to approve a software object was sent electronically to a number of entities for approval. Approvals were then returned to the system electronically and the object was prevented from being download until the necessary approvals had been received. The hearing officer held that the contribution lay in the operation of the electronic approval system and not in the process control system following the decisions in BL/026/07 and BL0/148/07-152/07. Specifically, the contribution was the manner in which the data for the approval system was captured for the purpose of approving a software release. The hearing officer held that this was excluded as relating solely to a computer program, and that the claims were not sufficiently tethered to process control to avoid the exclusion. Objections under mental act and a business method were also considered but not decided upon given the application failed as a computer program.