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United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office Decisions |
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You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office Decisions >> eSpeed, Inc (Patent) [2009] UKIntelP o00909 (12 January 2009) URL: http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKIntelP/2009/o00909.html Cite as: [2009] UKIntelP o909, [2009] UKIntelP o00909 |
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For the whole decision click here: o00909
Summary
The invention related to an electronic trading system in which first and second users could issue commands to a trading system by means of game controllers with greater speed and accuracy than by using a keyboard and mouse. An interface was connected to a memory storing sets of controller signal relationships which associated first and second types of game controller with the first and second users respectively, and allowed a signal from a game controller to be converted into a trading system command according to both the particular user and the particular type of controller.
Except for claims relating to providing a further set of relationships associated with the second user and the first type of controller, the hearing officer held all the claims to lack inventive step over a specification disclosing the use of a game-type controller (although not specifically a game controller) adapted to issue trading commands.
However the hearing officer held that that the invention was excluded under section 1(2) as both a computer program and a method in the light of Symbian [2008] EWCA Civ 1066 and Aerotel [2007] RPC 7. He considered that the contribution lay in the interface and did not lie in a new combination of hardware even if it allowed a trading system to be controlled by two game controllers in a way not possible before. The contribution was merely a better program which did not produce any technical improvement in the operation of the hardware, and was still a contribution to business method even if the trading commands were fed into a conventional trading system.
