In McRO, Inc. v. Bandai [1], the Federal Circuit provided important guidance for determining patent eligibility under 35 U.S.C. § 101 for software and related technology patents, particularly involving computer software processed by general-purpose computers. In a reversal of the decision at the Central District of California, the Federal Circuit concluded that a patent for automated lip-synchronization in computer animation recited “the ordered combination of claimed steps,… More
Tag Archives: 101
The Post Office Gets into the Alice Act
The Board has once again applied the Mayo/Alice test for patent eligibility, this time in the final written decision for United States Postal Service v. Return Mail Inc., CBM2014-00116, finding all six challenged claims unpatentable under 35 U.S.C. § 101. The patent bar as a whole, and this blog in particular, have noted how deadly § 101 has become post-Alice.… More
The remarkable effectiveness of Alice v CLS Bank challenges at the PTAB
The Supreme Court’s Alice v CLS Bank decision (2013) restricted categories of patentable subject matter in both the courts and in the Patent Office, including at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board. A look at the statistics at the PTAB shows just how effective a § 101 challenge can be.
The Supreme Court in Alice held that patents claiming “abstract ideas” are invalid and not eligible subject matter. … More