The system helps derivatives traders in their analysis of market
conditions so they can calculate the risks associated with
portfolios. Citibank's application described an invention that
would automatically detect abnormalities in data being input for
analysis and alert users to the probabilities of errors.
The firm was hoping to overturn a Patent Office hearing
officer's ruling of 2005 which said the invention was excluded from
the scope of patentability for being a business method and/or a
mathematical method. The officer was wrong about the business
method, said Justice Mann last week: just because it was to be used
in business did not make the invention a business method.
However, the system was still considered to be a mathematical
method and therefore excluded from patentability.
Citibank's patent agent had argued back in 2003 that the system
was not a mathematical method since a system which analyses data
and provides a confidence factor concerning a probable error rate
was providing a technically significant outcome. The agent had
pointed out to the patent examiner at that time that such a system
could act in a similar way in respect of data representing medical
information from a patient to provide a diagnosis.
