On November 16, 2018, The Federal Circuit held that yet another set of claims is “not directed to an abstract idea,” reversing a lower court decision dismissing a suit by Ancora Technologies Inc. asserting that HTC Corp. had infringed its patent. Ancora’s patent covers technology that prevents a software program from running on a computer if it is not validly licensed. With this ruling, Ancora’s suit against HTC may now proceed.
The Federal Circuit has repeatedly found that claims directed to an improvement in computer functions or computer capabilities is not directed to an abstract idea. Since 2014, the USPTO has asserted rejections against a vast range of claims on the grounds that they are directed to nothing significantly more than an abstract idea. In case after case, the Federal Circuit has held that the judicially-created exception of the “abstract idea” has been improperly asserted. See, for example, Enfish, LLC v. Microsoft Corp., 822 F.3d 1327 (Fed. Cir. 2016), Visual Memory LLC v. NVIDIA Corp., 867 F.3d 1253 (Fed. Cir. 2017), Finjan, Inc. v. Blue Coat System, Inc., 879 F.3d 1299 (Fed. Cir. 2018), Core Wireless Licensing S.A.R.L. v. LG Electronics, Inc., 880 F.3d 1356 (Fed. Cir. 2018), and Data Engine Technologies LLC v. Google LLC, 906 F.3d 999 (Fed. Cir. 2018).
This line of argument continues to appear productive for applicants and patentees.
Read the full text of Ancora v. HTC here.