Patent decision

BL number

O/046/12

Concerning rights in

GB0901322.8

Hearing Officer

Mr P Slater

Decision date

3 February 2012

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

Raytheon Company

Provisions discussed

PA 1977 Section 1(2)

Keywords

Excluded fields (refused)

Related Decisions

None

Summary

The invention relates in general to a system for remotely accessing records stored in a distributed database. The system includes a number of federated databases which may be located at separate locations and are interconnected by a network such as the Internet. Remote users can access the system via a conventional web browser. In order to retrieve records from the system, users submit queries via their web browser which include various filtering criteria such as keywords, time or geospatial indicators which can be compared with the contents of records stored within the various databases to extract those records which match the specified criteria. The process of filtering records to find those which match a user’s query is facilitated by the use of a metadata database containing metadata records which represent corresponding records within each of the federated databases but include much less data. By searching the metadata records only, far less data is being processed which enhances the speed by which queries can be executed and data records extracted. Furthermore, user queries are stored in a data event agent which periodically repeats the filtering of metadata records to identify any new records which have been added to the database and any additions or modifications to existing records which meet the original user query. In this way, the user can be supplied with a continuous feed of data records which match their original request. Therefore, if the databases are incomplete or not responding when the initial query is made, any missing or modified data records are supplied to the user as they become available. This means that remote users are no longer required to re-submit their query to obtain any additional records which may become available sometime in the future following their initial request as was the case in prior-art federated databases.

The Hearing Officer considered the four-step test in Aerotel/Macrossan in the light of the Symbian judgment, and having considered the signposts set out in AT&T/CVON, found the contribution to relate to a computer program as such, and having found no technical contribution refused the application under Section 18(3).