Patent decision

BL number

O/163/13

Concerning rights in

GB1018114.7

Hearing Officer

Mrs C L Davies

Decision date

24 April 2013

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

The Washington Post Company

Provisions discussed

PA 1977 Section 1(2)(c)

Keywords

Excluded fields (refused)

Related Decisions

None

Summary

The application relates to a data processing system and method in which tailored content is sent from the data processing system to a user’s computer based on a user record that the user can update. There is a data repository in which information files and their associated metadata are stored and the data processing system is used to selectively retrieve information files from the repository and provide a set of results to the user in the form of an executable document transferred across a network. A two-stage filtering process based upon attributes previously selected by the user is used to selectively retrieve the content which is presented to the user as the executable document when they select one of their “channels”. The user record is modified when the user selects certain mark-up associated with the information file, the mark-up also being displayed as part of the executable document. The user record is also displayed.

The Hearing Officer applied the Aerotel/Macrossan test in light of Symbian and noting the signposts found in the AT&T/Cvon judgment. The Hearing Officer concluded that the actual contribution did not satisfy any of the signposts and found that the contribution related solely to excluded matter as a computer program as such. The application was refused.