Podcast: Blockchain Intellectual Property Considerations for Innovators and Investors
Innovators seeking patent protection for software inventions should be aware that all software inventions face patent-eligibility issues. Nevertheless, patent practitioners who are experienced in the art of software patent...more
A recent decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit highlights the importance of describing any improvements to technology in the specification. In the case of Whitserve LLC v. Dropbox, Inc., WhitServe...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit looked at a patent directed to a data privacy system that described users operating mobile device apps to "socialize, bank, shop, and navigate." As users operate such apps,...more
Late last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit delivered ShoppersChoice.com the affirmation it ordered in Electronic Communication Technologies, LLC (ECT) v. ShoppersChoice.com, LLC. In doing so, the court...more
Since I last wrote on the Coons-Tillis patent eligibility reform in Congress, the Federal Circuit declined to take up an en banc rehearing of Athena v. Mayo. The court was deeply divided in the 7-5 decision, with all 12...more
Main Quest: Does Your Gaming Stream Violate the Copyright Act? Streaming platforms, such as Twitch, Mixer and YouTube Gaming, are quickly becoming household names, with daily viewership rates that rival those of more...more
Addressing the standard for qualifying as a covered business method (CBM) patent and the procedure for analyzing the claims of such patents under 35 USC § 101, the US Court of Appeals found that the challenged claims were...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit recently issued three interesting, related opinions interpreting and applying the “technological invention” exception to Covered Business Method Review (“CBM Review”). These...more
Federal Circuit Determines Time-Barred Petitioner Joined to an IPR Has Appellate Standing - In Mylan Pharmaceuticals Inc. v. Research Corporation Tech., Appeal Nos. 2017-2088, -2089, -2091, the Federal Circuit held that a...more
In Data Engine Technologies LLC v. Google LLC, holding patent-eligible a spreadsheet provided with tabs to facilitate navigation, the Federal Circuit continued, in late 2018, to refine the law of patent eligibility of...more
In BSG Tech LLC v. BuySeasons, Inc., the Federal Circuit held that a patent claim is ineligible under § 101 when its only allegedly unconventional feature is an abstract idea. The Federal Circuit affirmed the judgment of the...more
Federal Circuit Summary - Before Reyna, Wallach, and Hughes. Appeal from the District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. Summary: When the only unconventional feature of the patent claim is what has already been...more
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit found a software patent directed to a technique of analyzing financial data with resampled statistical methods to be invalid under § 101, because the claims, although...more
Core Wireless v. LG affirms the denial of summary judgment as to unpatentable subject matter, ruling that the asserted claims are directed to an improved user interface for computing devices, not to the abstract idea of an...more
On January 10, 2018, the Federal Circuit added Finjan, Inc. v. Blue Coat Sys., Inc., No. 2016-2520 (Fed. Cir.), to its Enfish jurisprudence and upheld the subject matter eligibility of a software patent directed to...more
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit found a software patent directed to the transmission of digital communication using a sender-generated identifier to be ineligible subject matter because the claims contained...more
On October 16, 2017, the Federal Circuit affirmed the district court’s ruling that the claims in Secured Mail Solutions LLC, v. Universal Wilde, Inc. (“Secured Mail”) were directed to patent-ineligible subject matter under 35...more
This third article in the “Surviving Alice” series examines how the USPTO’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board has responded to the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2014 Alice decision. It also shows how applicants can use the PTAB’s...more
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit found a software patent directed to automating previously manual processing of loan applications to be ineligible subject matter, because the claims did not amount to a...more
In a non-precedential opinion, the Federal Circuit affirmed the district court’s ruling that the claims at issue in Easyweb Innovations, LLC. v. Twitter, Inc. (“Easyweb”) were directed to patent-ineligible subject matter....more
In the recent decision Trading Technologies International, Inc., v. CQG, Inc. et al., the Federal Circuit affirmed a district court's ruling that a software patent on a graphical user interface was patentable subject matter,...more
The Federal Circuit recently found claims to a specialized graphical user interface (GUI) for trading financial securities eligible in Trading Technologies Int’l v. CQG, No. 2016-2016 (Fed. Cir. Jan. 18, 2017). The Federal...more
By judgement of January 3rd, 2017, the Turin Court of Appeal delivered a monumental decision in a longstanding patent dispute concerning the validity and infringement of patents relating to an Electronic Program Guide (EPG)...more
The Federal Circuit’s recent decision in Apple, Inc. v. Ameranth, Inc. highlights the potential impact of characterization of recited features as conventional, routine, generic, or known in the field without further...more
As technologies advance, the Patent Office (as well as the Nation’s courts) must utilize Section 101 of the Patent Act to place reasonable limitations on patent eligibility to ensure that our patent system balances the...more