Patent decision

BL number

O/244/13

Concerning rights in

GB1016416.8

Hearing Officer

Mr B Buchanan

Decision date

6 June 2013

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

Apple Inc

Provisions discussed

Patents Act 1977 section 1(2)

Keywords

Excluded fields (refused)

Related Decisions

None

Summary

The invention relates to a data synchronization protocol, in which synchronization messages to be exchanged between a client and server comprise separate sync modes (e.g. fast, slow, reset) associated with different dataclasses of data to be synchronized. The sync modes may be provided in parallel and the data may be updated in parallel. This is achieved by proposing and agreeing the sync mode for each dataclass; sending sync-start, sync-changes and finally a sync-commit command between client and server. By sending commands in parallel, data can be updated with fewer message round trips. Thus the advantages of the claimed invention are greater reliability and lower bandwidth usage (by using fewer messages and roundtrips) as well as recovery from interruption (by using sync anchors to track sync sessions).

The Hearing Officer considered whether the claimed invention was excluded from patentability under section 1(2). He followed the four step test set-out in Aerotel/Macrossan as confirmed by Symbian in considering whether the contribution provided by the synchronization protocol is actually technical. The claims were found to define an invention falling solely within the excluded subject matter, as a program for a computer and which does not provide the required technical contribution. The application was refused.