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You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office Decisions >> Con Francis Shivnen (Patent) [2008] UKIntelP o12008 (25 April 2008)
URL: http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKIntelP/2008/o12008.html
Cite as: [2008] UKIntelP o12008
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Con Francis Shivnen [2008] UKIntelP o12008 (25 April 2008)
For the whole decision click here: o12008
Patent decision
- BL number
- O/120/08
- Concerning rights in
- GB 0510974.9
- Hearing Officer
- Mr R C Kennell
- Decision date
- 25 April 2008
- Person(s) or Company(s) involved
- Con Francis Shivnen
- Provisions discussed
- PA 1977 Section 1(2)
- Keywords
- Excluded fields (refused)
- Related Decisions
- None
Summary
A computerised system for recording driving test scores as the test progressed was programmed to display a primary menu showing fault categories and, upon selection of a category, to replace it with a secondary menu identifying specific faults within the category. Entry of the fault and its grade of fault restored the primary menu, and the system also displayed a progress indicator for each category of fault. The system could be implemented on a handheld computer using a stylus for data selection and entry. Although the hearing officer accepted that this avoided the problem of using a computer in a moving vehicle, he held that the invention lay in designing a program which could cope with a small screen but did not solve a technical problem in the computer or cause it to operate in a new technical way. Applying the Aerotel test, and considering a method for carrying out a driving test to be a method for doing business, he held the invention to be excluded under the above fields (Symbian Ltd [2008] EWHC 518 distinguished) and refused the application.