In granting a motion to dismiss based on lack of patent-eligible subject matter under 35 U.S.C. § 101 and the Alice/Mayo test, a court held that patent claims for multiple patents directed to “wireless surveillance systems for monitoring a target environment” are abstract ideas, and “merely implement[ing] the abstract idea of wireless communication and remote surveillance using well-known, generic computer components and functionalities” does not provide an inventive concept. Sensormatic v. Wyze Labs., No. 19-1543-CFC (D. Del. Sept. 3, 2020) (patents-in-suit are U.S. Patent Nos. 7,954,129; 7,730,534; 7,936,370; and 8,610,772) The court identified claim 14 of the ‘129 patent as representative of all claims in the asserted patents. Independent claim 14 of the ‘129 patent is reproduced here: 14. A surveillance system for wireless communication between components comprising: a base system including at least two wireless input capture devices (ICDs), the ICSs having at least one sensor and at least one input…
Tag: Mayo
Patent Claims for “Two-step Pick and Place” fail § 101 at Rule 12 stage.
Patent claims directed to a two-step “pick and place” operation for attaching electronic parts to a circuit body (a “die attach” method) were held ineligible on a Rule 12(c) motion for judgment on the pleadings under 35 U.S.C. §101 and the Alice/Mayo test. Palomar Technologies, Inc., v MRSI Systems, LLC, Case no. 18-10236-FDS (D. Mass., May 28, 2020.) Background The plaintiff Palomar sued defendant MRSI for infringement of Palomar’s U.S. Patent No. 6,776,327. MRSI petitioned the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) for inter partes review (IPR) of the patent. The PTAB upheld validity of claims 1-47 and held claim 48 invalid. Following the IPR, MRSI moved for summary judgement on the basis of patent-ineligibility under 35 U.S.C. §101. The ’327 patent discloses a method which utilizes “double pick and place” wherein a first workpiece is first moved to an intermediate location close to a target attach location on a…
Method for Providing Enhanced Functionality in Exchange for Personal Information is Ineligible: Veripath, Inc. v. Didomi
In granting a motion to dismiss based on lack of patent-eligible subject matter under 35 U.S.C. § 101 and the Alice/Mayo test, a court held that patent claims directed to “granting permission to access personal information in exchange for enhanced functionality…[of] a routine piece of software” are abstract ideas, and “merely stat[ing] that the claims teach a technology-based solution, which improves the functionality of the prior art” does not provide an inventive concept. Veripath, Inc. v. Didomi, No. 19-civ-1702 (GBD) (S.D.N.Y. Mar. 30, 2020) (patent-in-suit is U.S. Patent No. 10,075,451). Independent claim 1 of the ‘451 Patent is reproduced here: 1. A method for controlling access to a user’s personal information comprising: providing a software component for inclusion in an application, the software component having an application programming interface (API); obtaining, from the application executing on a device of a user of the application, personal information about the user of…
Extrinsic Evidence and Abstract Ideas in Patent-Eligibility: CardioNet, LLC v. InfoBionic, Inc.
What if any limits are there on the extrinsic evidence (prior art) that can be considered in determining whether a patent claim is drawn to an abstract idea under step one of the Alice/Mayo 35 U.S.C. § 101 patent-eligibility test? And to what extent does the answer to this question matter; is it merely academic? In CardioNet, LLC v. InfoBionic, Inc., No. 2019-1149 (Fed. Cir. April 17, 2020), a three-judge panel (Judges Stoll, Plager, and Dyk) reversed the district court’s grant of a Rule 12(b)(6) motion because claims of U.S. Patent No. 7,941,207 “are directed to a patent-eligible improvement to cardiac monitoring technology and are not directed to an abstract idea.” The panel unanimously agreed that the ‘207patent’s claims were patent-eligible – and that a remand was not needed for a “review of the prior art or facts outside of the intrinsic record regarding the state of the art at the…
Federal Circuit Affirms § 101 Ineligibility of Set-Top Box Advertising Claims: Customedia Techs., LLC v. Dish Network Corp.
Claims of two patents directed to “data management and on-demand rental and purchase of digital data products,” e.g., selling advertising to be displayed via a set-top box, recites patent-ineligible subject matter under 35 U.S.C. § 101 and the Alice/Mayo test, held the Federal Circuit in Customedia Techs., LLC v. Dish Network Corp., No. 2018-2239 (March 6, 2020) (precedential). The Federal Circuit, in an opinion by Judge Moore, joined by Chief Judge Prost and Judge Dyk, affirmed the PTAB’s final written decisions, in Covered Business Method Review proceedings, of ineligibility of U.S. Patent Nos. 8,719,090 and 9,053,494. Claim 1 of the ’090 patent recites: 1. A data delivery system for providing automatic delivery of multimedia data products from one or more multimedia data product providers, the system comprising: a remote account transaction server for providing multimedia data products to an end user, at least one of the multimedia data products being specifically identified…