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United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office Decisions
The invention concerns a telephone conferencing system of the sort that allows multiple participants to take part in a single telephone discussion from various locations. A first caller initiates the conference call by entering a conference code and security passcode of his own choice and complexity (having agreed the time of the conference and intended usage codes with other potential participants beforehand). Subsequent callers may join the conference by entering the correct usage codes, thereby eliminating the need for conferencing system to pre-allot the codes in response to a preceding conference request.
Applying the Aerotel/Macrossan test, as modified by Symbian, the hearing officer found the contribution to be a new way of administering teleconference calls using a conventional teleconferencing platform and refused the sole independent claim under s.1(2)(c) as method of doing business and a computer program. However, the application was referred back to the examiner for consideration of a dependent claim relating to the alleviation of overloading in the presence of high numbers of conference participants.