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ARTICLE · 07 JUNE 2016

A New Hope For Software Patents?

Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C.
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Software patents have been facing intense scrutiny under 35 U.S.C. § 101 for subject matter eligibility since the U.S. Supreme Court's Alice v. CLS Bank decision in 2014.

United StatesIntellectual Property
Michael McNamara
Michael McNamara
Ping Hu
Ping Hu
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Software patents have been facing intense scrutiny under 35 U.S.C. § 101 for subject matter eligibility since the U.S. Supreme Court's Alice v. CLS Bank decision in 2014.  In the last two years, the patent ecosystem (including USPTO examiners, PTAB, U.S. district courts, and the Federal Circuit) is generally considered unfavorable and sometimes hostile to software patents.

However, a new hope may have arisen lately.  Last month, we reported that the Federal Circuit upheld validity of a software patent under § 101 in its Enfish v. Microsoft decision on May 12, 2016 [ click here].  This is only the second time since the Alice decision in 2014 that a software patent has won at the Federal Circuit in terms of § 101 subject matter eligibility.

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