Patent decision

BL number

O/859/21

Concerning rights in

GB1514006.4

Hearing Officer

Mrs C L Davies

Decision date

21 December 2021

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

Gelliner Limited

Provisions discussed

PA 1977 Section 1(2)(c)

Keywords

Excluded fields (refused)

Related Decisions

None

Summary

The invention relates to a method by which a person can obtain physical cash when an automated teller machine (ATM) is not readily available. The method is a means by which a withdrawer, i.e. in individual wishing to withdraw money as physical cash from their account, can obtain the cash without having to access an ATM. When a withdrawer wishes to withdraw cash, they use a computing device to send a cash request to an application server. The server then sends requests for cash to depositor devices within a set range of the withdrawer device. When the server receives a quote of a cash withdrawal fee for the cash withdrawal from a depositor device it forwards it to the withdrawer device. When the withdrawer device receives the quote, it sends an acceptance of the quote to the application server. The server then sends instruction so that the withdrawer and depositor can meet. When the withdrawer has received the cash from the depositor, messages are sent by the both the withdrawer and the depositor to the application server to confirmation that the cash transfer has been completed. Then electronic funds to the amount of the cash transfer and the fee are debited from the withdrawer-™s account and credited to the depositor-™s electronic account.

On applying the Aerotel/Macrossan 4 step test, the Hearing Officer found that the claimed invention was excluded as a computer program as such and a business method as such. The application was refused under section 18(3).

Full decisionO/859/21  711Kb