Liotopoulos, Fotios K. and Karypidou, Paraskevi filed a patent application numbered 4708/DELNP/2011 that is titled as METHODOLOGY AND SYSTEM FOR ROUTING OPTIMIZATION IN GPS-BASED NAVIGATION, COMBINING DYNAMIC TRAFFIC DATA. The patent has been filed in the field of Physics. This Patent Application has been granted as Patent Number 356925. This invention relates to compounds of a methodology and appropriate systems realizing it, related to the collection, by means of a GPS-based Personal Navigation Assistant (PNA) and aggregation, central processing and distribution (by means of a Central System) of dynamic information related to the road traffic flow (i.e., the traveling speed of a vehicle for every road segment it travels through, correlated with other vehicular and road parameters), thereby augmenting the existing static navigation map data with dynamic ones and providing improved routing and navigation capabilities to current PNAs.
During the patent examination, the Patent Examiner pointed out that without prejudice to objection u/s 2(1)(j), the subject matter of claims as filed in the application falls within the scope of clause (k) of section (3) of the Patents Act, 1970 (as amended). Claims needed to be defined clearly incorporating by what physical constructional features the said steps are being enabled in the method in order to make the method function/ work/ operate. Further, as worded the claimed method appears to be a mere algorithm implemented through software.
As a response, the Applicant submitted that the invention is clearly described as a combination of hardware (PNA device, central servers), data transmission characteristics (data security/privacy/integrity/authenticity/verifiability), and a distinct 4-part methodology (DCM, DIM, DDM, RM). A (generic) PNA and a (generic) server require no further definition or description, as they are well-known and well-defined entities in the state-of-the-art. Therefore, the description of our idea in the above terms is obviously more than “a mere algorithm implemented with software”.
Advocate Rahul Dev is a Patent Attorney & International Business Lawyer practicing Technology, Intellectual Property & Corporate Laws. He is reachable at rd (at) patentbusinesslawyer (dot) com & @rdpatentlawyer on Twitter.
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