In the Law360 article “Top Patent Eligibility Rulings In The Decade Since Alice,” Knobbe Martens partner Maria Anderson offered insights on the ongoing repercussions of the U.S. Supreme Court Alice v. CLS Bank decision.
The article focuses on the impact of the 2014 decision, which maintained that abstract ideas implemented by a computer are not eligible for patents, and traces the effects of Alice through the last 10 years of patent law. Speaking to a subsequent Federal Circuit decision that built upon Alice, Bascom Global Internet Services Inc. v. AT&T Mobility LLC, Anderson, who has more than 30 years’ experience prosecuting patents in the computer science and ecommerce fields, noted that the latter decision “can really help and allow us to have support for an argument that our invention is significantly more” than an abstract idea.
Anderson also commented on the August 2016 Federal Circuit decision Electric Power Group LLP v. Alstom SA which demonstrated how Alice could support challengers in invalidating patents. To this point, Anderson said the Electric Power Group ruling is “a very helpful case when one is trying to invalidate a patent under 101. It casts a very wide net, so a lot of technology can fall under that.” However, she notes that the ruling is concurrently “actually right in the crosshairs of what Alice was advising in its dicta for us not to do” regarding the courts’ potential overstep on patent eligibility.
Read the full article here.