Patent decision

BL number

O/521/14

Concerning rights in

GB1020675.3 & GB1020734.8

Hearing Officer

Mr B Buchanan

Decision date

8 December 2014

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

Intel Corporation

Provisions discussed

S1(1)(c), (d), S1(2)(c), (d), S4(1)

Keywords

Excluded fields (refused), Industrial application

Related Decisions

None

Summary

This decision concerns whether the inventions claimed in two patent applications relate to excluded matter and whether they are capable of industrial application. Both claimed inventions relate to performance analysis of multi-core processors when executing code. In particular, they provide a means of visualising the relationships between tasks running on a multi-core processor using trace analysis. The inventions work by there being two versions of the code being developed. Alongside conventional executable code is a version called “instrumented code” which includes a number of Application Program Interfaces (APIs). The APIs provide trace information about the tasks running in threads which is processed and displayed on a graphical user interface (GUI). By visualising the tasks and relationships, a software developer may identify and make improvements to the way the code runs by reprogramming it.

The hearing officer considered that the tests for industrial applicability and excluded matter were separate and independent, and found that following the Aerotel/Macrossan four step test and applying the AT&T/CVON signposts, both applications were excluded from patentability as a program for a computer and the presentation of information as such.