Ericsson is a famous Telecommunication enterprise known all over the world. It has set up its infrastructure that renders its services and software to the telecommunication industry in continents including Asia, America, and Europe. Its Network, IT & Cloud, and Media have enhanced the telecommunication sector all over the world.
In India, the business of Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (Ericsson) focuses on methods of analyzing cell membranes, method and system for suppressing noise in speech signals in hearing aids and speech communication devices, the process of dough forming of polymer-metal blend suitable for shape forming, and catalytic decomposition of lower hydrocarbons to produce carbon oxides free hydrogen and bamboo-shaped carbon nanotubes.
Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson (PUBL) filed a patent application numbered 76/DEL/2009 that is titled ROOT CAUSE PROBLEM DETECTION IN NETWORK TRAFFIC INFORMATION. The patent has been filed in the field of Communication. This Patent Application has been granted as Patent Number 353486. This invention relates to a device that retrieves the initial subset of occurrences from information related to a network and identifies one or more recognizing elements of the initial subset of events via a feature selection method. The device also retrieves one or more additional subsets of events, different than the first subset of events, from the data associated with the network, and cross validates the one or more discriminating features based on the one or more additional subsets of events. The device further detects a feature that is a root cause of a problem in the network based on the cross-validated one or more discriminating features.
During the patent examination, the Patent Examiner raised objections under Section 3(k) of the Patents Act, 1970. The subject matter of claim as filed in the instant application prima facie falls within the scope of Section 3(k). Certain claims are method claims which were a set of sequences used to implement an algorithm, without disclosing any constructional or structural feature of the said features. The features mentioned in the claims are only functional features of the method. The operational and implementation features of the invention are not fully supported by the description. It is not clear from the description of how the functional features of the method are being implemented. The clarity of the features of the method is very vague from the description. Also, some claims were device/system claims but do not disclose any constructional or structural feature of the said claims but represent an algorithm in a sequential manner. Therefore, the invention claimed in said claims is not patentable.
As a response, the Applicant submitted that merely the fact that operation of various functional units for attaining the objective of the invention has been manifested as method/process-steps and elaborated through flow charts, the method claims ought not to be labeled as algorithm simply because, in order to explain the said method, flowcharts have been detailed and relied upon by the Applicant. The claims ought not to be labeled as an algorithm. Therefore, it can be concluded that claims do not fall within the ambit of an algorithm of Section 3(k).
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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