PRABHA SRIDEVAN - (1.) THE applicant seeks revocation of the Patent No: 203552 for an Invention titled" Method for monitoring a Sensor." The Priority date is 27 -11 -2001.
(2.) THE applicant sought revocation of the patent on several grounds. Pending the ORA, Miscellaneous Petition No.86 of 2012 was filed for submitting a copy of the decision of the Opposition Board dated 24th February, 2010 in respect of corresponding EP Patent No. EP1454058. In these proceedings the Respondent had amended the claims since the Opposition Board had found the original claims were not novel in view of a prior art which is "The Wind Turbine Components and Operation" Bonus Info Newsletter. This prior art is cited before us too. Miscellaneous Petition No. 142/2012 has been filed for amendment of the claims.
(3.) THIS matter was heard earlier by another Bench and orders were reserved. But orders were not pronounced because the then Technical Member retired. So we have heard the matter all over again. The respondent had amended the claims before the EPO. Therefore the Learned Counsel for the Applicant raised a preliminary ground that having accepted the EP objections the patentee cannot be heard to say that the claims as granted will stand. The Leaned Counsel for the respondent submitted that they are defending only the claims as amended. The amended claims were sent to the Controller, who has given his opinion that the amendment does not fall within S.59 of the Patents Act. This opinion was also furnished to both the parties so that they could respond to it. Both the Counsel made their oral and written submissions. As stated earlier the Respondent had given up the granted claims and is pressing only the proposed claims and even there only the proposed claims 1, 3 and 4. The Granted claims and proposed claims are as follows: Granted Claims: 1. A method of monitoring a sensor for detecting a flow speed of a medium, comprising the steps of detecting the flow speed of the medium by a sensor (16). Comparing the flow speed of the medium detected by the sensor (16). With at least one operating parameter of a wind power installation or a hydroelectric power generator (10, 12, 14) driven by the medium to determine whether the sensor (16) operates correctly. 2. A method as claimed in claim 1, comprising the step of providing a plurality of operating parameters simultaneously or successively for the comparison with the flow speed detected by the sensor (16). 3. Wind power installation, comprising: a plurality of rotor blades driven by a medium a sensor (16) for detecting the flow speed of the medium and a comparison device for comparing the flow speed of the medium detected by the sensor (16) to at least one operating parameter of the wind power installation (10, 12, 14) to determine whether the sensor operates correctly. 4. Wind power installation as claimed in claim 3, wherein a sensor (16) is implemented as an anemometer.;