Woodside Energy Limited v Richard John Moore

Woodside Energy Limited contested an opposition against Richard John Moore, concerning patent applications numbered 201253231 and 2012253232. Moore opposed the patent applications on various grounds, including inventorship, inventive step, and novelty. The court was tasked with determining whether Moore was the sole eligible person under section 36, assessing the inventive step of the patent claims against section 7(2), and evaluating the novelty of the claims under section 60(3) of the relevant legislation.

The court first addressed the issue of inventorship and concluded that Woodside Energy Limited was both the sole inventor and the sole eligible person. Moore's request for opposition under section 36 was unsuccessful as he failed to demonstrate that anyone other than Woodside Energy Limited was the sole eligible person. Additionally, the court found that Moore did not have fiduciary rights to either application. Regarding the inventive step, the court found that all claims in both applications lacked an inventive step in view of common general knowledge alone. None of the claims met the criteria for inventive step as stipulated in section 7(2) of the relevant statute. The court also declined to exercise its power under section 60(3) as it found that none of the claims lacked novelty. The court similarly declined to exercise regulation 5.23 concerning certain documents not in evidence. Some of Moore's evidence in reply was found to not be properly in reply. The court granted Woodside Energy Limited two months to propose amendments that address the deficiencies in inventive step. The court made no award of costs.

In summary, the opposition was successful on the grounds of inventive step, while the requestor/opponent did not establish any other successful grounds of opposition. Woodside Energy Limited was given the opportunity to amend the patent applications to overcome the deficiencies in inventive step. The court's decision was final, with no costs awarded to either party.