2026-10-09 UK Intellectual Property Office decision O/114/08 and the 2008 Patents Court appeal

Found via Google ("Hydrocatalysis Power" Mills Thermacore excess heat; "BlackLight Power" v Comptroller EWHC 2008 Patents Court hydrino Floyd).

UK IPO decision BL O/114/08, 17 April 2008, https://www.ipo.gov.uk/p-challenge-decision-results/o11408.pdf. Result: partial. curl returned a GOV.UK HTML page, not the PDF; Chrome displayed the PDF (10 pages) but its text could not be extracted, so only page 1 was read from a screenshot [read: page image p.1]: Patents Act 1977; applicant BlackLight Power Inc; issue "Whether patent applications ... comply with sections 1(1)(c) and 14(3)"; hearing officer P. Marchant. Applications GB0521120.6 (a plasma reactor that generates power and produces a "new hydrogen species") and GB0608130.1 (a laser using the same species). "The examiners in the two applications objected that the new hydrogen species proposed by BlackLight was unknown to science, that the invention was consequently contrary to generally accepted physical law and was therefore not capable of industrial application", and that the specification could not enable something current science holds impossible. The rest of the decision (pp.2-10) is not yet read.

Appeal: Blacklight Power Inc v The Comptroller-General of Patents [2008] EWHC 2763 (Pat), Floyd J (also [2009] RPC 173). BAILII (https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Patents/2008/2763.html) showed a bot check in Chrome (blocked); CaseMine returned 403 to script; getcaselaw.com requires sign-up. Not read. [memory, medium]: Floyd J held that where there is substantial doubt about a theory, the Office should ask whether there is a reasonable prospect that the theory will turn out to be valid on fuller investigation, and remitted the applications; this needs the judgment text before it is relied on.

Bearing: priority 4 (government and court records). The UK examiners' ground is the same one the US Group Director gave in 2000 (contrary to known physics), applied to the 2005-2006 plasma-reactor and laser filings.