Adrian Speck KC and James Abrahams KC appeared for the Appellants “IDC” and the Respondents “Lenovo”, respectively, in an appeal from the Order of Mellor J revoking IDC’s patent following Trial B in the proceedings between the parties. The patent related to the selection of transport blocks for data transmission in HSUPA developed for 3G UMTS mobile telecommunications.
Mellor J had found that the patent was infringed and essential but that the claims had been anticipated by a marked-up version of a 3GPP technical specification which had been circulated to members of RAN Working Group 2. Mellor J had found lack of novelty based on an illustrative example which produced the result required by the claims.
In the appeal judgment allowing the appeal, Arnold LJ held that, in circumstances where Mellor J had already held that an algorithmic step in the invention had not been anticipated, he had erred in finding anticipation based on the example. The example produced the same result as the invention because of the choices made in the example, not because it used the method of the claims.