Patent decision

BL number

O/362/09

Concerning rights in

GB 0714545.1

Hearing Officer

Dr L Cullen

Decision date

17 November 2009

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

Ranger Services Ltd

Provisions discussed

PA 1977 sections 1(1) and 1(2)

Keywords

Inventive step

Related Decisions

None

Summary

The invention related to a method of detecting a cloned number plate on a vehicle using Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras in different locations linked to a central computer. Data from the cameras was compared and a parameter based on the distance between the cameras and time difference of the captured images was used to evaluate the likelihood that a cloned number plate had been detected. The hearing officer found that the application was excluded as a mental act and a computer program. Applying the Aerotel test in the light of Symbian, and on a proper construction of the claims, the contribution lay solely in the use of this parameter in determining whether or not a number plate was a clone. The hearing officer went onto consider if the computer program made a “technical contribution” and, having decided that it did not, refused the application under Section 1(2).

The hearing officer also found that, on the basis of the four step test set out in Windurfing as amended by Pozzolli, the application did not make an inventive step in the light of the cited prior art - four patent citations and a document identified from the Internet. Specifically, the hearing officer found that “on the balance of probabilities” the internet citation was a valid citation. Thus having determined that the application did not make an inventive step,the hearing officer also refused the application under Section 1(1)(b).