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You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office Decisions >> Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) (Patent) [2008] UKIntelP o12108 (28 April 2008) URL: http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKIntelP/2008/o12108.html Cite as: [2008] UKIntelP o12108 |
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For the whole decision click here: o12108
Summary
The application relates to a method for storing and encrypting digital information, for example, text, image or audio files, using DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid). A unique sequence of four nucleotides is used to represent each character of an extended ASCII character set (i.e. 256 characters). Sequences of DNA are prepared using these nucleotide sequences with suitable starting and end signals or primers to indicate where the stored information in the sequence starts and finishes. These coded sequences can then be stored within other sequences and strands of DNA. To decode the information, one must know what starting and end signals have been used.
The Hearing Officer held that it was obvious, in light of the prior art, to use unique combinations of 4 nucleotides to represent each of the characters in the extended ASCII character set. The person skilled in the art was a team consisting of persons who had knowledge of conventional DNA synthesis techniques and of persons who had knowledge of conventional techniques for the encoding, storage and decoding of data. The application was refused as lacking an inventive step.