Just like there are winners and losers in wildcatting for oil, the same holds true for oil and gas companies battling over exclusive ownership rights to energy-technology patents.

TDE Petroleum Data Solutions Inc., a Texas corporation, recently launched an attack against AKM Enterprise Inc. d/b/a Moblize for what it saw as an infringement by Moblize of its patent on its technology for monitoring oil wells. However, Judge Gray H. Miller in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, Houston Division, saw it a different way. He recently ruled that the patent was invalid based upon the standard set out by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2014 in Alice v. CLS Bank International.

In the original complaint filed on May 4, plaintiff TDE argued that it owns all rights, title and interests in U.S. Patent No. 6,892,812 (the '812 patent”) titled “Automated Method and System for Determining the State of Well Operations and Performing Process Evaluation,” including the right to bring suit and collect for past infringement. TDE provides services that allow rig operators to monitor and organize global rig operations.