Friday, May 24, 2013

Insurance method patent okay says IPONZ

In a decision published recently, the Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand (IPONZ) allowed a patent on a technique for providing data insurance.

It has been standard practice for some time to make periodic backup copies of stored data to mitigate financial and similar harm caused by data loss. However, there are some problems with existing techniques.

New Zealand patent 563320 recognises that costs are incurred in retrieving data from a remote location's backup copy and transferring it back to the original site. A further problem is where the backup copy may not be current, may have been damaged or corrupted, or may never have been created properly in the first place.

In Hodgkiss et al v Monument Insurance (NZ) Limited [2013] NZIPOPAT 8 (8 April 2013), the opponent Monument Insurance failed to persuade the Hearing Officer that the patent claims did not relate to an invention.

The patent claims

Claim 1 of the patent application reads as follows:
1. A computer-implemented method for providing data insurance, comprising: 
storing by a first processing device, data of a third entity on a storage medium of the third entity; 
creating an agreement between a first entity and a second entity to provide data protection service to a third entity, wherein the first entity arranges for a data protection service to be provided by the second entity for the third entity’s data stored on a storage medium of the third entity; 
creating an insurance agreement between the first entity and the third entity, because the data of the third entity was stored on the storage medium of the third entity, that authorizes the third entity to use the data protection service provided by the second entity for the third entity’s data stored on the storage medium of the third entity without charging the third entity for use of the data protection service provided by the second entity; 
storing, by a second processing device, an electronic backup copy of the third entity’s data, as required by the data protection service agreement, on a storage medium of the second entity such that the electronic backup copy of the third entity’s data stored on the storage medium of the second entity is insured against loss according to the insurance agreements; and 
upon loss of the data stored on the storage medium of the third entity, providing the backup copy of data from the second entity to the third entity in an attempt to restore the third entity’s data; and 
providing compensation from the first entity to the second entity for the data protection services.

Independent claims 12 and 22 are of a similar breadth, directed to a data loss mitigation tool and an insurance system respectively.

Is it an invention?

The Hearing Officer considered whether the invention claimed is a manner of manufacture within the definition of 'invention' in section 2 of the New Zealand Patents Act 1953.

The High Court of Australia in National Research Development Corporation v Commissioner of Patents ("NRDC") [1959] HCA 67; (1959) 102 CLR 252 (16 December 1959) established a patentability requirement of ‘a mode or manner of achieving an end result which is an artificially created state of affairs of utility in the fields of economic endeavour’.

The Hearing Officer noted at [35] that Patent Office decisions in New Zealand have followed NRDC to:
allow many different claims to inventions which do not fall easily within the scope of the ordinary meaning of 'manufacture', including allowing claims to 'computer-implemented' methods in a number of applications.
The appropriate test, as set out in the Hughes Aircraft decision is:
...whether each of the claims define a method which, either directly or by clear implication, embodies a commercially useful effect.
The Hearing Officer referred to Haddad's Application which clarified that:
the term [manner of manufacture] still implies a situation which involves some sort of interaction with a real entity ... or which achieves a tangible product or result.
At [47] it was noted about the patent under consideration that:
there appears to be a resulting effect which appears to fall within guidance given by ... the Assistant Commissioner's decisions in Hughes Aircraft and Haddad.
A further point of interest was a response to one of the opponent's arguments. The opponent submitted at [43] that mere computer implementation of a contracting process cannot confer patentability, relying on the Cool 123 decision. That decision notes that:
...it seems to me that it cannot be an 'invention' or 'manner of manufacture' to replace the previously conventional means (telephone, email or post) by the known SMS technology whose known properties or characteristics make it suitable for this use.
The Hearing Officer found at [44] that he wasn't persuaded that the present invention amounts to mere computerisation of a known process.

What next?

This invention was assessed under the current patent regime. There is currently a proposal to change New Zealand patent law to introduce a European-style "as such" restriction on the patentability of computer programs.

Under clause 10A of the proposed law a claim in a patent or an application relates to a computer program as such 'if the actual contribution made by the alleged invention lies solely in it being a computer program'.

So how would this invention be treated if it had been considered under the proposed law?

The Hearing Officer's comments give an interesting clue. The statement that this invention is more than a mere computerisation of a known process suggests that the actual contribution lies in more than just a computer program. It is therefore likely that this invention, and other inventions of this nature, would be patentable under the new law as well.

2 comments:

  1. Hi Matt. Interesting decision. Was this patent application opposed on obviousness at all?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Rich, the opponent did oppose the application on a few grounds including obviousness. However, the opponent didn't file any evidence in support and didn't appear at the hearing. The Hearing officer only considered prior publication and subject matter eligibility.

    ReplyDelete

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