Patent decision

BL number

O/0276/23

Concerning rights in

GB1912645.7

Hearing Officer

Dr L Cullen

Decision date

15 March 2023

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

Canon Kabushiki Kaisha

Provisions discussed

PA 1977 sections 1(2), 1(1)(b)

Keywords

Excluded fields (refused)

Related Decisions

None

Summary

The application relates to changing the language to be used by a user interacting with electronic apparatus such as a smartphone. In some cases the language of the voice of a user can be recognised by the apparatus and the setting of the apparatus may be changed to that language but only after confirmation from the user. In other cases the language is changed by the user choosing it directly. Thus the language being used is only changed by positive intervention of a user.

The Hearing Officer (HO) applied the four-step test from Aerotel/Macrossan and considered the modified signposts from HTC v Apple. Having done so he found the subject matter of the application to be excluded under section 1(2)(c) as a computer program as such. The relevance of IPO decision BL O/107/20 was considered but did not alter the view of the HO. In light of the finding on excluded matter, the HO did not go on to consider the issue of inventive step.

Full decisionO/0276/23  302Kb