Claim No: IP-2023-000054 - [2025] EWHC 563 (IPEC)

The ‘509 Patent is expressed to be for a pathway lighting unit for a walled pathway, i.e. one with one or more side walls. It explains from line 5 of internal page 1:

“A side wall may be to keep pedestrians and/or vehicles within the confines of the pathway. The pathway may be elevated, like, for example, a bridge or path of a high slope or in a building, in which case the side walls provide security to pathway users. The pathway may be adjacent private property in which case the side walls are to inhibit unauthorised entry by pathway users. If, for example, the walled pathway is a bridge over a railway or a motorway, the sidewalls provide security to both the pathway user and the railway or road users. In this case, the side walls are particularly high and can exceed two metres.”

The problem which the invention seeks to solve is identified from line 15 on page 1:

“Attachment of pathway lighting units to the side walls illuminates the deck and helps facilitate use by pedestrians or by vehicles. Ideally, the pathway lighting units are attached low enough for bright uniform lighting across the deck. However, attachments to the lower reaches of the side wall may serve as a foothold for scaling the side wall. The walled pathway’s security may be compromised unless the side wall is raised. This increases the cost of pathway improvement and has the counter-productive effect of making the pathway shady”.

The specification explains that the invention concerns a wall lighting support with a roof which is inclined at an angle of 45 degrees or less in order to prevent climbing, from line 26 of page 1 to line 5 of page 2:

“Accordingly, in a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a pathway lighting support for attachment to a side wall of a walled pathway, wherein the support comprises: a bracket for fixing the support to the side wall of the walled pathway; a means for supporting a lighting module; and a roof located on top of the support in normal use, wherein the roof is configured to inhibit the support from acting as a foothold wherein, the roof comprises a substantially flat top surface inclined with regard to the side wall of the walled pathway by an angle of inclination of 45 degrees or less. This inhibits use of the pathway lighting support to scale the side wall of a walled pathway. Advantageously, the pathway lighting support may be attached at any height of the side wall so that it may be located for optimum brightness and uniformity of lighting across the deck. An angle of inclination of 45 degrees, or less, inhibits gripping of a shoe sole and makes it uncomfortable to even attempt to gain a foothold upon the support.”

The specification sets out a number of potential roof configuration features, alone or in combination. These include at line 8 of page 2, that the roof may be shaped to inhibit gripping of materials used in soles of shoes, at line 9 of page 2 that the roof surface may have a co-efficient of friction low enough to cause a rubber sole to slip if someone attempts to stand, achieved by anti-climb coating or vertical crenulations in the roof top surface (line 11-12 of page 2), or by a smooth surface (line 13 of page 2). The roof may be curved or flat, and preferably with an angle of inclination of 35 degrees or less, and more preferably with an angle of 25 degrees or less (lines 15 to 18 of page 2).

The specification notes that preferably, inter alia:

‘509 contains a single embodiment given “by way of example” and with reference to a number of drawings contained in figures 1 to 9 in the Patent. Figures 1 and 2 show a bridge over a railway in perspective and vertical cross-section respectively. Figures 3 – 9 show different views and cross-sections of the single embodiment. I have considered all of them but include for information figure 3 (a perspective view of a pathway lighting unit) and figure 7 (a cross-section through that pathway lighting unit fixed to a side wall):