Tencent Technology refused patent related to online ads

Chinese technology major Tencent Technology (Shenzhen) Company, one of the largest internet companies in the world which owns instant messenger platforms QQ and WeChat, has lost a patent approval for its application related to online advertisement resources searching in India.

The patent application was filed in Chennai Patent Office in 2009, for a method and apparatus for searching for online advertisement resource.

The claimed invention was to provide a method and apparatus for searching for an online advertisement resource, which increases success ratio for searching for the resource, said the company in a patent filing.

The Patent Office raised objections including that the claim is obvious over the known technology and the claimed invention is not allowable under the sections of The Patents Act, 1970. It added that the method is a mere software application and hence not patentable under Section 3(k) and 3(m) of Patents Act.