News & Analysis as of September 24, 2024

Patent Infringement

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Patent-Eligible Subject Matter refers to the types of inventions that can be legally patented. The criteria for patentability varies depending on the jurisdiction. In the United States, for instance, if a researcher discovers a naturally occurring substance, the substance itself cannot be patented. This issue was examined in a United States Supreme Court case, AMP v. Myriad, in regard to the patentability of human genes. less -

101 Whack-a-Mole – Yet Another Software Patent Falls Victim to Section 101

Seyfarth Shaw LLP on 5/16/2024

In 2014, the Supreme Court upended U.S. patent law in the landmark ruling for Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank International. The Alice decision established new standards for determining whether inventions, especially those related...more

Claim Construction When Uniformly Referring to Aspects of an Invention

Knobbe Martens on 4/10/2024

Chewy, Inc. v. International Business Machines Corporation - Before Moore, Chief Judge, Stoll and Cunningham. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York....more

Split Decision on Patents for Restricting Access to Computer Files

AEON Law on 11/7/2023

A Federal Circuit judge, sitting by designation in the District of Delaware, granted-in-part and denied-in-part a Rule 12(c) motion by the defendant for judgment based on patent eligibility under 35 U.S.C. § 101. The case...more

Federal Circuit Review - October 2022

Knobbe Martens on 11/9/2022

Avoiding § 101 Eligibility Issues in Internet-Centric Method Claims - In Weisner v. Google LLC, Appeal No. 21-2228, the Federal Circuit held that the specific implementation of an abstract idea, such as improving Internet...more

A Computer Method Claim Must Improve the Functions of the Computer to Survive § 101

Knobbe Martens on 10/18/2022

Summary: A patentee’s allegation that computer method claims made data analysis more efficient, without reference to the function or operation of the computer itself, was not sufficient to overcome a challenge under 35 U.S.C....more

Defeating the Duo: Jumping to Alice Step Two

Knobbe Martens on 10/6/2021

COSMOKEY SOLUTIONS GMBH & CO. KG V. DUO SECURITY LLC - Before O’Malley, Reyna, and Stoll. Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Delaware. Summary: Patent claims directed to...more

Lack of Specificity in the Specification Creates Patent Eligibility Issues

Knobbe Martens on 8/27/2021

UNIVERSAL SECURE REGISTRY LLC v. APPLE INC. Before Taranto, Wallach, and Stoll. Appeal from U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware. Summary: A patentee’s reference to existing known methods and techniques in...more

Another Gaming Patent Struck Down as Ineligible

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP on 7/20/2021

Bot M8 LLC, a patent assertion entity, was unsuccessful in its effort to have the Federal Circuit reverse the lower court’s invalidity finding related to one of six different patents asserted against Sony in Northern District...more

Free Stream Gets Caught in the Section 101 Sandbox

Knobbe Martens on 5/14/2021

FREE STREAM MEDIA CORP. v. ALPHONSO INC. Before Judges Dyk, Reyna, and Hughes. Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of California - Summary: Patent claims were directed to an abstract...more

Simio, LLC v. FlexSim Software Products, Inc. (Fed. Cir. 2020)

McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff LLP on 12/30/2020

This decision is bad. Not an American Axle level of bad, but still quite far from good. Simio sued FlexSim in the District of Utah for alleged infringement of its U.S. Patent No. 8,156,468. FlexSim moved for dismissal on...more

Packet Intelligence LLC v. NetScout Systems, Inc. (Fed. Cir. 2020)

McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff LLP on 7/21/2020

Introduction - Packet Intelligence sued NetScout in the Eastern District of Texas, alleging infringement of U.S. Patent Nos. 6,665,725, 6,839,751, and 6,954,789. The District Court ruled that all three patents were valid...more

Federal Circuit Affirms Rule 12(b)(6) Dismissal Because the Patent Was Directed to the Patent-Ineligible Abstract Idea of Teaching...

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP on 6/18/2020

The Federal Circuit recently affirmed a district court’s dismissal because the claims directed to an interactive video game for learning to play guitar were patent-ineligible under 35 U.S.C. § 101. In its ruling, the court...more

Federal Circuit Vacates Summary Judgment of Non-Enablement Where the Only Alleged Non-Enabled Systems Did Not Practice the Claims

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP on 6/8/2020

In a recent decision, the Federal Circuit vacated the district court’s summary judgment of non-enablement because the systems identified by patent challengers as non-enabled under § 112 were not covered by the claims. Because...more

Done at Step 1: When a Claim Is Tied to an Improvement, No Need to Proceed to Alice Step 2

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP on 5/12/2020

By reversing the lower court’s ruling that the asserted claims were not patent-eligible under 35 U.S.C. § 101 in Uniloc v. LG Electronics, the Federal Circuit resurrected Uniloc’s infringement suit against LG Electronics. It...more

C.D. California: Online Loan Origination Patent Is Abstract and Invalid Under Section 101

Holland & Knight LLP on 1/22/2020

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

Supreme Court Denies Review In Three Section 101 Cases

Troutman Pepper on 1/14/2020

On January 13, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari in the following cases...more

Federal Court Relies on PTAB Findings in Denying Section 101 Summary Judgment Motion

Jones Day on 9/4/2019

Despite the prohibition on patenting “abstract ideas” and the tendency of computer software claims to fall into that category, claims directed at improving faulty software systems may still be patentable if they encompass an...more

Check Processing Claims Bounce

McDermott Will & Emery on 8/29/2019

The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit found claims directed to using data from a check to credit a merchant’s account before scanning the check to be subject matter ineligible under 35 USC § 101 as reciting an...more

E.D. North Carolina Axes Patent Directed to Teaching Guitar

Holland & Knight LLP on 8/16/2019

Rocksmith sued Yousician Oy, alleging infringement of its patent entitled "interactive guitar game." The patent discloses software for learning to play the guitar and provides an "effective way to provide interactive method...more

It's Not You; It's Your Patent: Dating App Patent Held To Be Abstract, Ineligible

Holland & Knight LLP on 8/5/2019

NetSoc filed suit against several online dating platforms, alleging infringement of its patent entitled "Method and System for Establishing and Using a Social Network to Facilitate People in Life Issues." The defendants moved...more

The Impact of Fact Issues on Patent Eligibility after Berkheimer

Knobbe Martens on 6/25/2019

The Federal Circuit’s 2018 decision in Berkheimer v. HP Inc. was likely the most consequential development in patent eligibility since the Supreme Court introduced its two-part eligibility framework in Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank...more

Latest Federal Court Cases - April 2019

Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt PC on 4/2/2019

Grunenthal GMBH v. Alkem Labs., Ltd., Appeal Nos. 2017-1153, -2048, -2049, -2050 (Fed. Cir. Mar. 28, 2019) - This week the Federal Circuit issued a rare decision concerning the utility doctrine in patent law. In general,...more

Univ Of Fl. Res. Found., Inc. v. Gen. Elec. Co. Et Al.

Knobbe Martens on 3/4/2019

Federal Circuit Summary - Before Prost, Moore, and Wallach. Appeal from the Northern District of Florida. Summary: When a state entity sues for patent infringement, it waives sovereign immunity as to all defenses,...more

Federal Circuit Review - September 2018

Knobbe Martens on 10/30/2018

Federal Circuit Finds Claims Issued from Reexamination Co-Pending with Appeal Ineligible Where the Changes Did Not Affect Section 101 Eligibility - In SAP AMERICA, Inc. v. InvestPic, LLC, Appeal No. 2017-2081, the...more

Federal Circuit Further Expands the Role of Factual Questions in Section 101 Analysis

Knobbe Martens on 10/23/2018

In the recent decision of Data Engine Technologies LLC v. Google LLC, the Federal Circuit may have expanded how factual questions underpin subject matter eligibility analysis under Section 101. Since the two-part eligibility...more

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Patent-Eligible Subject Matter › Computer-Related Inventions › Patent Infringement

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