Invoking 'Alice,' Lawyers for LinkedIn, Facebook Knock Out Database Patent
The ruling from Judge Susan Illston is the latest to strike down a software patent in the wake of the Supreme Court's 2014 decision.
January 05, 2015 at 01:21 PM
3 minute read
SAN FRANCISCO — For inventor Thomas Bascom, the handwriting was on the wall. In big, screaming letters.
Between a difficult reexamination before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and a Supreme Court decision that raised the bar on software patents, Bascom's suit against LinkedIn Inc. and Facebook Inc. had little chance of surviving a challenge under Section 101 of the Patent Act. U.S. District Judge Susan Illston ruled Monday that Bascom's computerized method for organizing relationships among documents is invalid because it's drawn to ineligible subject matter.
It was the latest software patent to bite the dust in the wake of Alice v. CLS Bank, the June U.S. Supreme Court decision that tightened eligibility standards under Section 101.
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