{"id":195,"date":"2016-06-14T14:24:35","date_gmt":"2016-06-14T12:24:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stellbrink-partner.com\/site\/english\/?p=195"},"modified":"2017-03-28T18:47:48","modified_gmt":"2017-03-28T16:47:48","slug":"life-alice-software-patents-scrutiny","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stellbrink-partner.com\/site\/english\/life-alice-software-patents-scrutiny\/","title":{"rendered":"Life after Alice: software patents under scrutiny"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Ever since the US Supreme Court announced its decision in the Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank International case in 2014, the fate of software patents remained uncertain. Alice Corp.\u2019s patents were invalidated, and the court\u2019s statement included the following telling passages:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cA mere instruction to implement an abstract idea on a computer \u201ccannot impart patent eligibility.\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cThe mere recitation of a generic computer cannot transform a patent-ineligible abstract idea into a patent-eligible invention.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cStating an abstract idea while adding the words &#8220;apply it&#8221; is not enough for patent eligibility.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cNor is limiting the use of an abstract idea to a particular technological environment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Alice ruling, widely seen as having broad implications, led to a sharp decrease in granted software patents, in particular those referring to business methods. This can be seen in the graph below. There was even some discussion on whether the US courts are taking the EPO route as regards software patents.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/patentlyo.com\/patent\/2014\/12\/patent-business-method-patents.html\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-196 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/stellbrink-partner.com\/site\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/06\/News-2-300x195.png\" alt=\"Graph of sharp decrease in granted software patents\" width=\"300\" height=\"195\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stellbrink-partner.com\/site\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/06\/News-2-300x195.png 300w, https:\/\/stellbrink-partner.com\/site\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/06\/News-2-600x390.png 600w, https:\/\/stellbrink-partner.com\/site\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/06\/News-2.png 761w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">A more recent ruling, however, brings a new hope to all those invested in software patents. In May 2016, the Federal Circuit ruled that two patents relating to databases are valid, reversing a previous decision of a lower court to invalidate them under <a href=\"http:\/\/www.law360.com\/articles\/795640\/fed-circ-says-database-patents-wrongly-axed-under-alice\" target=\"_blank\">Alice<\/a>. The patents, belonging to Enfish LLC and used in an infringement case against Microsoft Corp., have been reinstated. The Federal Circuit reasoned that unlike in the Alice case, where an abstract idea was simply used in a certain technological environment, the Enfish database patents are patent-eligible, as they refer to improving the functioning of a computer. The Federal Circuit wrote \u201cAccordingly, we find that the claims at issue in this appeal are not directed to an abstract idea within the meaning of Alice. Rather, they are directed to a specific improvement to the way computers operate,\u201d. Even more generally, the court stated \u201cwe do not read Alice to broadly hold that all improvements in computer-related technology are inherently abstract\u201d.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Only time will show how this Federal Circuit ruling will be interpreted in the general context of US software patents and whether Alice\u2019s impact will be reduced. As for the infringement case, the Federal Circuit conceded that Microsoft did not violate one of the Enfish\u2019s claims. The case will proceed further.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ever since the US Supreme Court announced its decision in the Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank International case in 2014, the fate of software patents remained uncertain. Alice Corp.\u2019s patents were invalidated, and the court\u2019s statement included the following telling passages: \u201cA mere instruction to implement an abstract&hellip; <span class=\"read-btn\"><a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/stellbrink-partner.com\/site\/english\/life-alice-software-patents-scrutiny\/\">Read More<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[7,9,10,8],"class_list":["post-195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-more","tag-alice","tag-patent","tag-software-patent","tag-us-supreme-court"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Life after Alice: software patents under scrutiny - Stellbrink &amp; Partner Patent Attorneys<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/stellbrink-partner.com\/site\/english\/life-alice-software-patents-scrutiny\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Life after Alice: software patents under scrutiny - Stellbrink &amp; Partner Patent Attorneys\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ever since the US Supreme Court announced its decision in the Alice Corp. v. 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