The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held that a claim that is not solely directed to printed matter and also contains subject matter that is possibly inventive is patent eligible under 35 U.S.C. § 101. Printed matter encompasses any information claimed for its communicative content, and the [printed matter] doctrine prohibits patenting such printed matter unless it is “functionally related” to its “substrate” [i.e., interacts with the other elements of the clai

The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held that the claims of U.S. Pat. No. 6,993,049 are not directed to patent ineligible subject matter and thus reversed and remanded the district court's decision. The Federal Circuit stated that "[w]e have routinely held software claims patent eligible under Alice step one when they are directed to improvements to the functionality of a computer or network platform itself" and held that "the claims at issue are directed to a patent

The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held that the claims drawn to a device that more accurately distinguishes atrial fibrillation and atrial flutter from other types of arrythmias are directed to patent eligible improvement under 35 U.S.C. § 101. The Federal Circuit stated that the claimed invention achieves multiple technological improvements by identifying “variability in the beat-to-beat timing . . . as relevant to the at least one of atrial fibrillation and atria

The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed the 35 U.S.C. § 101 rejection of Mr. Rudy's claims relating to a method of fishing which recites observing water clarity, measuring light transmittance and selecting a fishing hook based on a chart in the claims. The Federal Circuit emphasized that "we apply our law and the relevant Supreme Court precedent, not the Office Guidance, when analyzing subject matter eligibility. To the extent the Office Guidance contradicts or

The Federal Circuit affirmed the Patent Trial and Appeal Board's determination that claims directed to data management and processing systems for merely storing advertising data are patent ineligible under 35 U.S.C. 101 as part of a Covered Business Method review of the patents. With regard to Alice step one, Customedia asserted that the claimed invention improves the functionality of the computer itself. The court rejected this argument stating "by dedicating a section of t

The Federal Circuit held that the claimed invention in this case was not directed to a patent-ineligible concept because it is a method of preparing a sample for testing. The majority explained that: "[t]his is not a diagnostic case. And it is not a method of treatment case. It is a method of preparation case." "The claims in this case are directed to methods for preparing a fraction of cell-free DNA that is enriched in fetal DNA. The methods include specific process steps—s

In a patent that describes a device and improved method for error detection in data transmission systems, a dependent claim recited a specific implementation of varying the way check data is generated that improves the ability of prior art detection systems. Specifically, dependent claims 2-4 required that a "varying device" "modify the permutation in time." This improvement was akin to the type of non-abstract improvement the Court found to be patent eligible under 35 USC