Patent decision

BL number

O/884/21

Concerning rights in

GB1715738.9

Hearing Officer

Mr H Jones

Decision date

8 December 2021

Person(s) or Company(s) involved

International Consolidated Airlines Group

Provisions discussed

Section 1(2)(c)

Keywords

Excluded fields (refused)

Related Decisions

None

Summary

The application relates to a data query processing system, particularly for use with data relating to -�perishable units-�. Perishable units are defined in the application as being any form of entity which has an attribute defined by some constraint such as time and/or quantity, e.g. a purchasable ticket for a commercial travel service, hotel rooms, restaurant reservations, etc. Conventionally a data query processing system involves a backend server receiving and processing queries from remote computing devices across a data network. The backend server maintains a single source of up-to-date data which allows the queries to be processed. The problem with such conventional data query handing systems is that the backend server is involved in every data request, and the server is therefore prone to processing bottlenecks. The invention adopts a different approach, based on machine learning. Rather than the backend server processing all the queries, each remote computing device is enabled to process queries itself.

The hearing officer considered the contribution made by the invention in the light of the five signposts set out in AT&T and concluded that the improvement lay in a computer program as such, and therefore excluded by section 1(2). The application was refused.

Full decisionO/884/21  185Kb