Posts Tagged: "patent eligibility"

Chamberlain Petitions SCOTUS to Review CAFC’s ‘Refusal to Assess Claims as a Whole’ in Garage Door Opener Case

On May 15, the Chamberlain Group Inc. filed a petition for a writ of certiorari asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit’s (CAFC) decision reversing a district court’s holding that Chamberlain’s claims covering a “moveable barrier operator” were patent-eligible under Section 101. If the Supreme Court grants review, it will consider whether the Federal Circuit “improperly expanded § 101’s narrow implicit exceptions by failing to properly assess Chamberlain’s claims ‘as a whole,’ where the claims recite an improvement to a machine and leave ample room for other inventors to apply any underlying abstract principles in different ways.”

Illumina v. Ariosa Diagnostics: A Closer Look

The Federal Circuit recently found that a method for preparing an extracellular DNA fraction from a pregnant human female and using it for analyzing a genetic locus involved in a fetal chromosomal aberration was not directed to a natural phenomenon, and thus eligible for patenting. Illumina, Inc. v. Ariosa Diagnostics, Inc., No. 2019-1419 (Fed. Cir. March 17, 2020) (“Illumina v. Ariosa”). The decision includes a dissent. Appreciation of the reasoning of both the Majority and the Dissent is essential to understanding the current state of the debate on subject matter eligibility of processes involving natural phenomenon. The all-important question in such cases centers on how to determine whether such an invention is directed to a judicial exception. Stated differently, when does an invention that uses a natural phenomenon turn into a patent-eligible process rather than being directed merely to the natural phenomenon?

CAFC Finds Claim for Delivery Notification System Abstract as Directed to a Longstanding Commercial Practice

Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) affirmed a decision of the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida in Electronic Communication Technologies, LLC. v. ShoppersChoice.com, LLC. In particular, Electronic Communication Technologies, LLC (ECT) sued ShoppersChoice for infringement of claim 11 of U.S. Patent No. 9,373,261 (“the ’261 patent”) in the district court. The district court granted ShoppersChoice’s motion for summary judgment that claim 11 of the ’261 patent was invalid under 35 U.S.C. § 101. ECT appealed and the CAFC affirmed. Judge Prost delivered the opinion for the Court.

McRO Patent Upheld Again at Federal Circuit, But Not Infringed

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, in a precedential decision authored by Judge Taranto, today affirmed-in-part, vacated-in-part and remanded a decision of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in McRO, Inc. v. Bandai Namco Games America Inc. et. al. The case derives from the 2016 Federal Circuit decision determining that McRO’s challenged patent claims were directed to the display of lip synchronization and facial expressions of animated characters, which the court said were not directed to an abstract idea and were therefore patent eligible subject matter under 35 U.S.C. 101. In today’s ruling, the Court considered whether the district court’s decision on remand, which held that the Developer defendants and defendant-appellees “were entitled to summary judgment of noninfringement because the accused products do not practice the claimed methods and to summary judgment of invalidity because the specification fails to enable the full scope of the claims,” was correct.

Uniloc v. LG Shows that Broad Software Claims are Patent Eligible, Highlights the Perils of Concession

The Federal Circuit’s recent Uniloc v. LG Electronics decision (April 30, 2020) may be very helpful for subject matter eligibility. This Federal Circuit panel (Moore, Reyna & Taranto) held software patent claims to be patent eligible subject matter. I find the decision clearly written, with many interesting aspects. What strikes me most, though, is that seemingly very broad software patent claims were held eligible. Additionally, the decision highlights the perils of concession in a 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss.