Patent decision

BL number

O/033/22

Concerning rights in

GB1802583.3

Hearing Officer

Miss J Pullen

Decision date

17 January 2022

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Provisions discussed

Sections 1(2) &14(5)(b)

Keywords

Clarity, Excluded fields (refused)

Related Decisions

None

Summary

The invention relates to updating digital certificates which have validity periods after which they are no longer useable for authentication/verification. Problems arise if a certificate is not updated when, or before, the validity period expires and updating is a time-consuming burden for users/administrators when there are many information processing apparatus that need to update electronic certificates. The invention defines an apparatus and method which transmits a certificate issuance request to an external apparatus at a predetermined timing, receives an updated certificate in response and stores the updated certificate. The predetermined timing, which is independent from the certificate expiry date, is based on a date and a time and an update cycle set by a user via a screen.

The Hearing Officer construed the claims and found them to be prima facie clear. They went on to consider the contribution made by the invention in the light of the five signposts set out in AT&T. They concluded there was no technical effect and the invention is excluded by section 1(2) as a computer program as such and a business method. The application was refused.

Full decisionO/033/22  359Kb