Software Patents: January Patents Limited's Application

As I have to present a talk for our seminar on Software Patents after Symbian and Bilski in Liverpool on 5 Feb 2009 I thought I would have a look at the Comptroller's decisions since Symbian Ltd v Comptroller-General [2008] EWCA Civ 1066 to see whether there had been any change in the Office's approach to software and business method patents since the CA's decision.

The official line from the IPO is that this case has not made much difference.   In "Applying the Aerotel/Macrossan Test" the Office revisited four cases that had been decided before Symbian and concluded that they would have been decided in exactly the same way now.  And yet I wonder. Only one case has come before an hearing officer since Symbian and that was a win for the applicant.

In January Patent Ltd.'s application the invention was a combined electronic point of sale device for buying credits for mobile telephones. The examiner had rejected the application on the grounds that the invention was nothing more than a computer program and method of doing business as such. As the hearing officer, Mrs Chalmers, summarized it:
"In the examiner’s view, the EPOS apparatus is entirely conventional and the contribution lies in the provision of a software control module for an existing EPOS apparatus to provide mobile telephone credit for a customer and invoice the credit purchase on the EPOS apparatus."
She concluded that the invention went beyond the mere programming of an existing EPOS apparatus to provide mobile telephone credit:
"the contribution lies in providing a better EPOS apparatus capable of handling mobile telephone credit purchases and other retail transactions comprising, in combination, a software control module operable to provide mobile telephone credit for a customer and invoice the purchase of the credit; means for printing a top-up voucher on the printer of the EPOS apparatus; and means for printing with the printer the value of the top-up voucher onto a customer’s receipt as part of a single or multiple retail transaction.for a customer and invoice the credit purchase". 
In other words, if I am not being unfair to the hearing officer, the arrangement of some conventional electronic point of sale and voucher credit apparatus plus some programming and some output devices.  Would that really have got through before Symbian, I wonder?  

Anyway,  come along to our talk on 5 Feb 2009. Listen to Julyan Elbro the man from the IPO who actually has responsibility for excluded matter who has written all the practice notices on patentability.    Thanks to Kirwans' generous sponsorship this seminar will only set you back a pony.  How much would anyone else would charge you for 2 1/2 hours CPD for the SRA?   What a bargain. Fill out the form below and send it back to us with your cheque and make your firm's training partner happy.

....................................................................................................
Software Patents after Symbian and Bilski
Martin's Building, Water Street, Liverpool, L2 3SX    
5 Feb 2009 15:00 - 17:00  
CPD 2 1/2 hours (SRA)


Please reserve me ..... place(s) at £28.75 per head (£25.00 + £3.75 VAT) 

Name ....................................................................   

Position .................................................................

Organization .........................................................

Address ................................................................    

................................................................................    

Post Town ..............................................................    

Postcode ......................

Tel ...........................................................................

Email ......................................................................

I enclose my cheque for £............... payable to NIPC Ltd.

Name(s) of Participant(s) 

....................................................................................

....................................................................................


Signature ...................................................................

Date .........................................

Please post your cheque to NIPC Ltd. The Media Centre, 7 Northumberland Street, Huddersfield, HD1 1RL

NIPC Training is a division of NIPC Ltd., a private company incorporated with limited liability in England and Wales under the provisions of the Companies Acts 1985 – 2006 with company number 06223818. Its registered office is c/o HWCA Ltd., Northern Assurance Buildings, 9-21, Princess Street, Manchester, M2 4DN. Its principal place of business is The Media Centre, 7 Northumberland Street, Huddersfield, HD1 1RL, Tel +44 (0)870 990 5081. 
The company's VAT number is 929 5910 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Copyright in Photographs: Temple Island Collections and Creation Records

Image
In our very first NIPC newsletter which we published in June 1997 I wrote a case note on Mr. Justice Lloyd's decision in  Creation Records Ltd. and Others v News Group Newspapers Ltd   [1997] EMLR 444, [1997] EWHC Ch 370, (1997) 16 Tr LR 544. In that case Mr. Noel Gallagher of Oasis and others applied for an interlocutory injunction to restrain The Sun from offering for sale and selling a poster of Oasis that featured a photo of an elaborate set that included a white Rolls Royce in a country club swimming pool. The Sun's photograph was very similar to the photograph that appeared on an Oasis album cover. The similarity arose because The Sun's photographer shot the same scene at roughly the same time and from the same angle as Mr. Gallagher's photographer but he did not reproduce any part of Oasis's print or negative. The learned judge held that the plaintiffs had no arguable case for infringement of copyright though he accepted that they had an arguable case for br...
Read more

"What is meant by "Due Cause" in s.10 (3) of the Trade Marks Act? The Red Bull Case

Image
Amsterdam   Source Wikipedia According to Wikipedia  Red Bull is the most popular energy drink in the world, with 5.2 billion cans sold in 2012. Its manufacturer, Red Bull GmbH , has registered the RED BULL mark has registered those words and their accompanying logo as word and device marks in trade mark registries around the world including the Benelux Office for Intellectual Property ( "BOIP" ) . The company registered that sign with BOIP for non-alcoholic drinks in class 32 with effect from 11 July 1983. After decades of massive sales and extensive advertising nobody could argue that that mark has a reputation within the meaning of art 5 (2) of the Trade Marks Directive (Directive 2008/95/EC of the European Parliament and the Council of 22 October 2008   to approximate the laws of the Member States relating to trade marks OJ 8.11.2008 p 299/25).  S.10 (3) of our Trade Marks Act 1994   implements that provision. There is in the Net...
Read more

Copyright: Creation Records Ltd. v News Group

It is trite law that if two photographers take identical pictures of the same scene at the same time from the same position each of their photographs is an original work and neither infringes the copyright in the other. However, much of the skill of a photographer lies in his choice of subject and the arrangement of the scene. The question whether copyright subsists independently in such an arrangement arose in Creation Records Ltd. v News Group Newspapers Ltd . (1997) The Times 27 April.   The Facts A swimming pool at a country club was drained and various props including a white Rolls Royce motor car assembled for a photograph of a well-known group of musicians for reproduction on their album cover. Although the public was not admitted to the session certain fans of the group who happened to be there were allowed to photograph the scene before official pictures were taken. A freelance photographer who was booked into the club photographed the scene during the session. One of his pict...
Read more