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IP|Trend: New Era in Protection of Software by Intellectual Property Law?
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is at it again, gaslighting the public in its ongoing crusade against patents. While the EFF does perform some commendable work, mostly in the areas of individual privacy rights, its...more
Patent protection is perhaps the most contentious form of IP protection for software. There is no surer way to start a fight amongst the various interest groups interested in patents than to discuss software patents — both...more
In most jurisdictions around the world, the most common form of protection for software is copyright. In the US, ever since the Alice decision, copyright was thought to be the best form of protection for software. Given...more
The evolution of graphical user interfaces parallels the evolution of computing technology itself. As computers grow more powerful and sophisticated, so does their ability to display cutting-edge representations of...more
The Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) rejected all pending claims of Mr. Greenstein’s patent application, which was directed to adjusting the amount a person saves and choosing investments with the goal of saving enough...more
Federal Circuit Summary - Before Lourie, O’Malley, and Stoll. Appeal from District of Delaware. Summary: Under step one of Alice, a claim is not directed to an abstract idea when it recites a specific technique to...more
Much of the modern economy is driven by software development. Companies are creating and refining new apps that run on mobile devices, and using machine learning to provide users with personalized user interfaces and...more
Post-Alice, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“PTO”) is aggressively rejecting software claims under the Alice two-part test, the parameters of which many examiners are still trying to understand. Not...more
Software methods can be patented in the United States if the application is prepared to describe and claim subject matter legally defined as being patentable. Under Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank International, 134 S. Ct. 2347...more
At first glance, the development of Section 101 jurisprudence appears chaotic. The Supreme Court captured several different kinds of problems in Alice and its earlier patentable-subject-matter opinions, and the Federal...more
The Federal Circuit in a 2-1 decision upheld four software patents against a patent-eligibility challenge, finding that the patents do not claim an “abstract idea.” The decision, Amdocs (Israel) Ltd. v. Openet Telecom Inc. et...more
The Federal Circuit overturned a District Court ruling that a patent directed to automated lip synchronization and manipulation of animated characters’ facial expressions was invalid under Section 101 as being an abstract...more
The Federal Circuit has released its long-awaited opinion in McRo v. Bandai, reversing the lower court’s decision that the claims were ineligible subject matter. McRo’s invention in U.S. 6,307,576 was a method used in 3D...more
On July 28, 2016, District Judge Denise Cote (S.D.N.Y.) granted defendants AlphaCap Ventures, LLC’s, a non-practicing entity, and Richard Juarez’s (collectively, “AlphaCap”) motion to dismiss plaintiff Gust, Inc.’s (“Gust”)...more
On May 11, 2016, President Obama signed into law the Defend Trade Secrets Act (“DTSA”), marking one of largest changes to intellectual property law since the America Invents Act of 2011. This legislation will allow companies...more
The notion of strategic claim drafting, which experienced patent practitioners understand, is all about writing specific, narrowly defined claims to cover the strategically important “choke points” in a value chain. The...more
Since Alice, consistently defining the bounds of statutory subject matter in computer arts confounds even the most experienced attorneys. E-commerce software combining visual elements of multiple parties’ websites is patent...more
There are many ways to obtain intellectual property protection for software creations. Many keep the software code confidential and maintain the software as a trade secret....more
Patents generally describe new inventions in terms of a unique structure, function, or combination of structure and function. Those patents that focus on functions of computers or computer-implemented functionality are often...more
The heady days of 2012 saw “Gangnam Style” dominate the U.S. music charts, Patricia Krentcil rocket to fame as the “New Jersey Tanning Mom,” and the New York Giants win the Super Bowl. That year also is the source of nearly...more
Speeding up a blueprint generation process that can be done by hand does not make computer software eligible for patenting. So reasoned the New Hampshire district court in another of a bevy of post-Alice district court...more
Since the Federal and Supreme Court rulings in Alice Corporation Pty. Ltd. v. CLS Bank International, et al., we have seen some issued patents invalidated on the grounds of patent-ineligible subject matter directed to an...more
Emerging companies often ask: “Is my idea patentable?” Many of these ideas relate to software. The patent eligibility of software is again a hot topic in the United States and around the world. Recent developments in US...more
For the first time since the Supreme Court’s Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank Int’l decision this past summer, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has found that a patent claiming a software-related invention...more
It’s been a rough couple of years for software developers seeking patent protection for their software. Decisions by the Supreme Court have limited the amount of patent protection that developers can obtain. Attorneys Seth...more