Claims Directed To A Mental Task Are Abstract, But Computerizing An Old Practice Is Not

Cambridge Assocs., LLC v. Capital Dynamics; PNC Bank et al. v. Secure Axcess

Addressing the issue of patent-eligible subject matter for covered business method (CBM) patents, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) instituted a CBM review on § 101 grounds in Cambridge Assocs., LLC v. Capital Dynamics, CBM2014-00079 (PTAB, Sept. 8, 2014) (Praiss, APJ) but declined to institute a § 101 basic review in PNC Bank et al. v. Secure Axcess, LLC, CBM2014-00100 (PTAB, Sept. 9, 2014) (Benoit, APJ).  In Cambridge Assocs., the PTAB preliminarily concluded that the claimed method for benchmarking assets was directed to an abstract idea, whereas the PTAB did not find an abstract idea in the claimed method for authenticating a web page in PNC Bank.