Patent decision

BL number

O/1113/22

Concerning rights in

GB2200512.8

Hearing Officer

Miss J Pullen

Decision date

16 December 2022

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation

Provisions discussed

PA 1977 Section 1(2)(c)

Keywords

Excluded fields (refused)

Related Decisions

None

Summary

The application relates to a virtual-bond collecting device, which collects a virtual-bond, in a distributed ledger network. The invention is concerned with smart contracts for operation on a blockchain. A smart contract is simply a computer program stored on a blockchain that is run when predetermined condition are met. By using the smart contract, it is possible to perform an exchange safely even if the exchange is between two unreliable people since the exchange can be controlled by a program.

The Hearing Officer applied the Aerotel/Macrossan four step test, considered the AT&T/CVON signposts and found that the identified contribution of the independent claims did not make a technical contribution and that the claims are excluded from patentability as a business method and a computer program as such. The application was refused under section 18(3).

Full decisionO/1113/22  549Kb