Patent Subject Matter Eligibility

Reversing a district court’s Section 101 dismissal, the Federal Circuit held that Visual Memory’s patent on a programmable memory system with processor-specific operational characteristics was directed to an improved computer memory technology — not an abstract idea — because it describe

The Federal Circuit reversed the Court of Federal Claims’ § 101 dismissal of Thales Visionix’s inertial sensor patent, holding that claims directed to a specific arrangement of sensors and a mathematical algorithm to improve navigation accuracy are patent-eligible because the claims impr

The Federal Circuit affirmed invalidation of Intellectual Ventures’ XML-formatting and financial data-collection patents under Section 101, holding that organizing, collecting, recognizing, and storing data — even when dressed in domain-specific vocabulary — is a patent-ineligible abstract ide

The Federal Circuit held Mallinckrodt’s patents on methods of supplying inhaled nitric oxide therapy while monitoring patients for adverse effects were patent-ineligible under § 101 — finding the claims directed to the natural phenomenon that nitric oxide can worsen pulmonary edema in certain

The Federal Circuit held that McRO’s patents on rule-based automated lip synchronization in 3D character animation were patent-eligible — the claims specified a particular improvement in computer animation technology using specific rules, not merely the abstract idea of using rules to automate

The Federal Circuit held that patents on real-time monitoring and analysis of electric power grid data were patent-ineligible under Section 101, establishing that collecting, analyzing, and displaying information — even in a complex industrial context — is an abstract idea without an inventive conce

The Federal Circuit affirmed the invalidity of Mentor Graphics’ patents on hardware synthesis software under § 101 — holding that claims directed to the abstract idea of synthesizing a hardware circuit design from a functional description were not rendered patent-eligible by implementation on

The Federal Circuit affirmed § 101 invalidity of Intellectual Ventures’ patents on interactive customizable web pages and database record indexing — holding that creating customizable web interfaces for financial products and organizing financial data with hierarchical index structures are abs

The Federal Circuit vacated dismissal of BASCOM’s Internet content-filtering patent, holding that an inventive concept can arise from a non-conventional, non-generic arrangement of individually known elements — even if the abstract idea at the core of the claims is itself conventional.

The Federal Circuit held that claims directed to a specific improvement in database technology — a self-referential logical table that allows all types of data to be stored in a single table structure — were directed to a concrete software improvement rather than an abstract idea, surviving Alice st

The Federal Circuit affirmed the first covered business method patent review final written decision under the AIA, holding that the PTAB correctly invalidated Versata’s pricing patent under Section 101 and that CBM eligibility determinations are reviewable on appeal — establishing the Federal

The Federal Circuit held that Sequenom’s patent on detecting paternally inherited cell-free fetal DNA (cffDNA) in maternal blood for non-invasive prenatal diagnosis was patent-ineligible under § 101 — finding the claims directed to a natural phenomenon (cffDNA’s presence in maternal bloo

The Federal Circuit affirmed that document-scanning and data-recognition patents are invalid under Section 101 as directed to long-practiced abstract ideas — and notably held that Section 101 invalidity can be decided at the motion to dismiss stage, before claim construction, establishing an early-e

The Federal Circuit held that Myriad’s claims to methods of comparing or analyzing BRCA gene sequences were patent-ineligible under § 101 as directed to abstract mental processes — applying the Supreme Court’s Mayo framework to diagnostic comparison claims on remand from AMP v. Myriad, w

The Federal Circuit held that DDR Holdings’ patent on a method for retaining website visitors by displaying third-party products within the host website’s visual framework — rather than redirecting visitors to the third-party’s site — was patent-eligible under Alice because the cla

On its third visit to the Federal Circuit, Ultramercial’s patent on ad-supported online media distribution was finally struck down as an abstract idea — completing a legal journey that spanned four years, two Federal Circuit opinions, and two Supreme Court remands, all bookended by the Alice d

Applying the newly minted Alice framework, the Federal Circuit unanimously invalidated buySAFE’s patent on computer-facilitated transaction guarantees, holding that using a computer to create a contractual bonding relationship is textbook abstract idea territory with no inventive concept.

The Federal Circuit held that a patent claiming an image device profile — a collection of color and spatial data — was patent-ineligible, finding that a data structure without physical embodiment is not patentable, and that methods consisting only of mathematical correlations are abstract ideas.

A divided Federal Circuit panel held Accenture’s insurance task-management system patent invalid under Section 101, finding that adding computer and insurance-industry labels to an abstract idea does not make a claim patent-eligible.

The Federal Circuit initially held Ultramercial’s patent on a method of distributing copyrighted media over the internet by requiring viewers to watch an advertisement to be patent-eligible — but after Supreme Court remand in light of Alice v. CLS Bank, reversed and found the claims directed t

Ten Federal Circuit judges issued seven different opinions and could not agree on a single legal standard for software patent eligibility under § 101, affirming by an evenly divided court that Alice’s financial settlement patents were invalid — a fractured ruling that led directly to the Supre

The Federal Circuit, sitting en banc, affirmed invalidity of Alice’s financial settlement software patent claims — but produced seven separate opinions with no majority rationale, reflecting deep disagreement on how to apply § 101 to software and setting the stage for the Supreme Court’s

The Federal Circuit held that patents on computer-implemented methods for managing stable-value life insurance policies are directed to an abstract idea and therefore invalid under § 101, ruling that adding generic computer implementation to an abstract mathematical algorithm does not create patent-