Patent Law Weblog
Category: Patentable Subject Matter
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By Michael Borella and Ashley Hatzenbihler* — Patent eligibility is a bit of a mess these days. Ever since the Supreme Court handed down the Alice v. CLS Bank decision six years ago, the distinction between what might be subject matter that can be patented and what is not has been blurry at best. Famously,…
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Note: The below is a sarcastic parody, in the spirit of our earlier sarcastic parodies. By Michael Borella — WASHINGTON D.C., June 23, 1984. In a unanimous decision, the Federal Circuit has ruled U.S. Patent No. 4,405,829 invalid under 35 U.S.C. § 101, finding the claimed invention directed to an abstract idea. The '829 patent,…
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By Michael Borella — 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 under 35 U.S.C. §§ 101 and 102, and infringed. The § 101 dispute was tried at the bench. NetScout appealed.…
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By Michael Borella — Electronic Communication Technologies (ECT) sued ShoppersChoice in the Southern District of Florida for allegedly infringing claim 11 of U.S. Patent No. 9,373,261. The claim recites: 11. An automated notification system, comprising: one or more transceivers designed to communicate data; one or more memories; one or more processors; and computer program code stored in the one…
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By Donald Zuhn –- Earlier today, the Federal Circuit affirmed the rejection by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board of claims 1-3 of U.S. Patent Application No. 15/726,162 as being patent ineligible under 35 U.S.C. § 101. The '162 application, which is entitled "An Iterative Process of Squeezing Excess Food out of Daily Food Intake…
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Claims for an Interactive 3D Virtual Environment Found Patent Ineligible By James Korenchan — In the field of computer gaming, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California recently granted Defendants' Rule 12 motion alleging that claims 1, 3, and 6 of U.S. Patent No. 8,228,325 (the '325 Patent) are invalid as claiming…
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By Michael Borella — Uniloc, owner of U.S. Patent No. 6,993,049, brought an action for infringement of that patent against LG in the Northern District of California. The District Court granted LG's motion to dismiss on the pleadings, agreeing with LG that the claims were directed to patent-ineligible subject matter under 35 U.S.C. § 101. …
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Claims Directed to Selecting Fishing Hooks for Use Are Not Patentable By Joseph Herndon — Christopher John Rudy, represented pro se, appealed from a decision of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board ("Board") affirming the rejection of claims 34, 35, 37, 38, 40, and 45–49 of U.S. Patent Application No. 07/425,360 ("the '360 application") as…
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By Michael Borella — In a post-truth world, it is more tempting than ever to evaluate data based on gut instinct, intuition, and anecdotal evidence. It is thus refreshing when results of a robust statistical analysis are published, even if the response to the ultimate outcome is, "Yeah, we knew that." Case in point, patent…
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By Kevin E. Noonan — There are (at least) two ways of looking at the course of the Federal Circuit's evolving interpretation of the Supreme Court's subject matter eligibility jurisprudence under Mayo Collaborative Services v. Prometheus Labs., Inc. and Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank Int'l. One way is to consider the Court to be adrift, unable to…
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