What Does the Supreme Court Ruling in Alice v. CLS Mean to a Software Entrepreneur?
It's been a while since I last posted, and I apologize for that. (If interested, here's an alert about what's kept me away: a CFAA trial we wrapped up in late July.) But I am back, so let's look at the latest on the Section...more
The plaintiff in Wanker v. United States accuses the government of infringing four patents, all of which relate generally to a method for comparing products and services through the use of various weighting factors to assign...more
Over the past year, Pebble Tide LLC has asserted its two patents against an array of companies – from banks and insurance companies to entertainment conglomerates – alleging that the defendants infringe patents related to...more
Plaintiff brought suit in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California for alleged infringement of U.S. Patent No. 8,548,902, which related to online loan origination services. The defendant moved for...more
Intellectual Ventures I LLC ("IV") sued Symantec Corp. and Trend Micro (defendants) for infringement of various claims of three U.S. Patents (Nos. 6,460,050; 6,073,142; and 5,987,610). The District Court held the asserted...more
Addressing the issue of subject matter eligibility, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversed the district court’s finding that the limitations of the challenged claims, when considered as an ordered...more
Intellectual property (IP) law is undergoing a major transformation just as additive manufacturing? or 3D printing? has begun to revolutionize the manufacturing industry. The interplay between these two forces could end up...more
Robinson, J. Defendant’s motion for summary judgment of invalidity is granted; plaintiff’s motion for validity is denied. Defendant’s motion for summary judgment of non-infringement is granted; plaintiff’s motion for...more
On June 19, 2014, the Supreme Court issued its decision in Alice Corporation Pty. Ltd. v. CLS Bank International, clarifying what it means to be patentable subject matter. With one stroke of the pen, the Supreme Court...more
On June 25, 2014, just six days after the Supreme Court decided Alice Corp. Pty. Ltd. v. CLS Bank Int’l, 134 S. Ct. 2347 (2014), the USPTO issued its Preliminary Examination Instructions (“Guidance”) in view of the case. ...more
There's an old saying that “bad facts make bad law,” acknowledging that a court's decisions regarding extreme cases can result in law poorly adapted to less extreme cases. The Supreme Court's recent trio of 35 U.S.C. § 101...more
The Supreme Court’s ruling against broadly claimed software patents in Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank leaves many questions on patent eligibility unanswered, which means the controversy and confusion over the scope of patent...more
The Supreme Court has made a sport of reversing the Federal Circuit over the past decade or so, and other than reserved (and sometimes not so reserved) statements by members of the lower court, the Federal Circuit has...more
Supreme Court Sets New Indefiniteness Standard - In Nautilus, Inc. v. Biosig Instruments, Inc., Appeal No. 13-169, the Supreme Court vacated and remanded Federal Circuit’s reversal of summary judgment because the...more
A recent episode of NPR’s “Planet Money” was entitled “The Case Against Patents.” Several notable commentators in that episode questioned whether patents help or hinder innovation, whether history supports the benefits of a...more
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) wasted no time providing guidance to its examining corps regarding the recent Supreme Court decision in Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank International. Just one week after the Justices...more
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously affirmed their earlier ruling on patent claims involving computers and software. For the most part, those companies and inventors who have business methods patents, software...more
Implications of Alice v. CLS Bank - Late last week, the United States Supreme Court decided Alice Corp. Pty. Ltd. v. CLS Bank Int’l, et al., a case the technology community had hoped would clarify what kinds of...more
In a unanimous decision, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the Federal Circuit's en banc decision that petitioner Alice Corporation's asserted patent claims are invalid for being directed to a patent-ineligible abstract idea....more
Patent claims that merely require generic computer implementation do not transform a patent-ineligible abstract idea into a patent-eligible invention, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Alice Corp v. CLS Bank, decided on...more
The Supreme Court yesterday issued its long-awaited decision in Alice Corporation v. CLS Bank International addressing the patent eligibility of computer-implemented inventions under 35 USC §101. The Court’s unanimous...more
Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank International - Justice THOMAS delivered the Court’s unanimous opinion. Justice SOTOMAYOR filed a concurring opinion, in which Justices GINSBURG and BREYER joined. Appeal from the Federal...more