Patent decision

BL number

O/297/12

Concerning rights in

GB0709391.7

Hearing Officer

Mrs S E Chalmers

Decision date

2 August 2012

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

Mr David Duke

Provisions discussed

PA 1977, Section 1(1) and 1(2)

Keywords

Excluded fields (refused), Inventive step

Related Decisions

None

Summary

The invention relates to a password entry system designed to prevent third parties from stealing personal identification numbers (PINs) when they are entered in plain view. This is achieved by generating a matrix which contains random characters such as letters at the login process and providing selection buttons to select the row in which a character of the password exists. To make it harder for an unauthorised person to work out the password, each character is present in more than one line at once and the user has a choice of selection buttons. When the user enters his password, he selects a row which contains the character of the password and repeats this action for each character in the order in which they appear in the password. The computer can then match the password against the data collected from the characters in the selected rows.

The Hearing Officer found that the invention claimed involved an inventive step. She went on to apply the four step test set out in Aerotel/Macrossan and found that the contribution made by the invention fell within excluded fields, namely to a computer program and the presentation of information as such. The application was refused.