O/600/20, SITA Ypenburg B.V., GB1800562.9 (date: 27 November 2020)

BL number

O/600/20

Concerning rights in

GB1800562.9

Hearing Officer

Mr B Buchanan

Decision date

27 November 2020

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

SITA Ypenburg B.V.

Provisions discussed

Patents Act 1977 section 1(2)(c)

Keywords

Excluded fields (refused)

Related Decisions

None

Summary

The claimed invention facilitates interaction between a traveller’s mobile ‘phone, and a self-service bag-drop facility at an airport. The invention works by determining that a user device having a ticket stored on it is in the vicinity of a self-service terminal e.g. using a Bluetooth™ signal, Near Field Communication or scanning a bar code, for example. Once detected, the user device establishes a connection session with a cloud service which acts as a broker between the device and the terminal. The user device also activates an application which receives directional information relating to the terminal via the broker relating to the self-service function. The advantage of this arrangement is that the user device need not communicate directly with the self-service terminal other than to determine it is in the vicinity, and does need to be configured accordingly. As a consequence, interaction is simplified, queuing times may be reduced and user-experience, cost of operation, efficiency and stress may be ameliorated.

The Hearing Officer followed the four step Aerotel/Macrossan test to determine whether there was a technical contribution and considered the AT&T signposts. The contribution was not found to provide the required technical effect and the claimed invention was found to relate solely to a program for a computer and a method for doing business as such, so the application did not meet the requirements of section 1(2)(c). The application was refused under section 18(3)

Full decision O/600/20 566Kb