The Federal Circuit affirmed that the USPTO’s subject matter eligibility guidance is not binding on the courts, and that the proper legal standard for patent eligibility remains the Alice/Mayo framework as interpreted by federal court precedent.
The Federal Circuit reversed a district court ruling and held that method-of-preparation claims for enriching cell-free fetal DNA from maternal blood were patent eligible under § 101, because the claims went beyond merely observing a natural phenomenon and recited concrete preparation steps.
The Federal Circuit held that patent claims directed to manufacturing driveshaft liners that “attenuate” vibrations were invalid under § 101 because they were simply an instruction to apply Hooke’s law — a natural law — without specifying how to do so, triggering a sharp dissent warning of § 101 ove
The Federal Circuit invalidated garage door opener patents covering a wireless sensor system for communicating door state, holding the claims were directed to the abstract idea of wirelessly communicating status information — an idea that cannot be its own inventive concept.
The Federal Circuit reversed a district court and invalidated Solutran’s check-processing patent under § 101, holding that the presence of physical steps involving paper checks does not transform an abstract business method into patent-eligible subject matter.
The Federal Circuit reversed a district court’s dismissal of patent claims as ineligible under § 101, applying Berkheimer to hold that well-pleaded factual allegations about how the claimed invention was an unconventional advance must be accepted as true at the 12(b)(6) stage — limiting early
The Federal Circuit affirmed that patent claims directed to displaying profit-and-loss data on a trading screen were ineligible under § 101 because merely presenting new financial information on a generic display does not solve a technical problem.
The Federal Circuit held that patents covering network-controlled electric vehicle charging stations are directed to the abstract idea of network communication for device interaction, invalidating all four asserted patents under § 101.
The Federal Circuit reversed a district court’s ruling that Endo’s oxymorphone dosing patent was ineligible, holding that claims directed to a specific method of treating specific patients with specific dosages are not merely abstract natural laws.
The Federal Circuit upheld SRI’s network intrusion detection patents against a § 101 challenge, holding that claims requiring computers to perform surveillance and analysis that the human mind is incapable of doing are not directed to abstract ideas.
The Federal Circuit reversed a district court’s ruling that patents on using beta-alanine as a dietary supplement were invalid under § 101, holding that method of treatment claims covering use of a natural compound in non-naturally-occurring quantities to alter physiology are patent eligible.
The Federal Circuit invalidated a diagnostic patent for detecting autoantibodies linked to myasthenia gravis, then denied en banc rehearing in a rare decision accompanied by eight separate opinions, exposing the court’s deep division over § 101 and diagnostic patents.
The Federal Circuit held that Trading Technologies’ patents on a graphical user interface for electronic futures trading were patent-ineligible abstract ideas under Alice — finding that displaying market data and allowing traders to place orders by clicking on a price ladder represented an abs
The Federal Circuit reversed a district court’s dismissal and held that a patent claiming a method of preventing computers from running unlicensed software by using the BIOS to store a license verification key is not an abstract idea—it claims a concrete improvement to computer security functionalit
The Federal Circuit reversed invalidation of tabbed-spreadsheet navigation patents, holding that claims covering a specific, novel user interface for navigating large spreadsheets are not directed to an abstract idea.
The Federal Circuit held that a patent covering an “attention manager” that displays content in unused screen space is ineligible under § 101, because it claims a desired outcome — non-interfering display of two information sets — without specifying any technical means of achieving it.
The Federal Circuit held that patent claims covering computerized voting, verification, and vote tabulation are directed to the abstract idea of voting — a fundamental human activity for centuries — and thus ineligible under § 101.
The Federal Circuit held that method-of-treatment claims directed to a specific dosing regimen for schizophrenia based on a patient’s genetic profile are patent eligible under §101, distinguishing the Supreme Court’s Mayo decision and reinforcing the eligibility of personalized medicine patents.
The Federal Circuit held that on a motion to dismiss, courts must accept all well-pleaded facts as true before ruling on patent eligibility under § 101, reversing summary dismissal of software form-processing patents.
The Federal Circuit held that the Alice/Mayo Step 2B inquiry — whether a claim element or combination of elements represents an ‘inventive concept’ that was well-understood, routine, and conventional — contains underlying factual questions that may not always be resolved as a matter of l
The Federal Circuit upheld patent claims covering an improved mobile device application summary interface, holding that specific graphical user interface improvements solving a concrete usability problem are not abstract ideas under § 101.
The Federal Circuit held that identifying the “smallest salable patent-practicing unit” is not sufficient when that unit still contains non-patented features, and further apportionment is required to isolate the value of the patented technology in complex software products.
The Federal Circuit affirmed PTAB’s cancellation of Credit Acceptance’s patent on financing automobile purchases through a dealer-administered program, holding the claims directed to the abstract idea of processing financing transactions — a business practice not rendered patent-eligible
The Federal Circuit affirmed invalidity of Smart Systems’ open-loop transit payment patents under Section 101, holding that collecting financial data using generic components to facilitate transit access is an abstract idea — with a notable dissent arguing that the claims addressed a real, Int