Federal Circuit Finds Claims Valid Under § 101 For Only The Second Time in Almost Two Years

Patent subject-matter eligibility under 35 U.S.C. § 101 depends on surviving a two-part test laid out in the United States Supreme Court’s June 2014 Alice v. CLS Bank decision: (1) is the claim directed to an abstract idea, and (2) if it is, do elements in the claim transform the abstract idea into something that is patent-eligible?  Since Alice, the Federal Circuit has found the claims in two dozen cases to be patent ineligible.  Computer-related patent claims have been particularly hard-hit.  However, we now have two decisions finding eligibility: 2014’s DDR Holding v. Hotels.com and Enfish, LLC v. Microsoft Corp., decided May 12, 2016.

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