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You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> United Kingdom Intellectual Property Office Decisions >> John Quentin Phillips (Patent) [2002] UKIntelP o07202 (14 February 2002) URL: http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKIntelP/2002/o07202.html Cite as: [2002] UKIntelP o07202, [2002] UKIntelP o7202 |
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For the whole decision click here: o07202
Summary
The invention relates to a handheld computer games console, similar to the Nintendo Gameboy®, having a removable portion which includes both the program and the control switches for playing the game. By combining the control switches and the program in a single removable portion, the invention enables the designer to provide input controls that are optimised for a particular game.
The fundamental concept of the invention was shown to lack novelty having regard to three earlier patent documents, but the applicant amended the claims to introduce a feature that was not part of the original claims, ie. the use of an interrupt to control the transfer of input data from the removable portion to the main processor. The examiner objected that such use of interrupts was common general knowledge, citing three examples of earlier patent documents based on a partial supplementary search, and maintained an inventive step objection. The application was found to lack inventive step, but the opportunity to amend was given.