E-Message Patents Survive Alice Challenge

Common computer technology has fallen victim to Alice in many recent cases. It is therefore noteworthy that the District of Massachusetts declined to invalidate e-mail management patents under §101 in Sophos v. RPost.

The patents-in-suit are directed to inventions that verify the delivery and integrity of electronic messages. RPost alleged Sophos infringed the patents-in-suit and Sophos defended such claims by alleging, among other things, that the patents-insuit are invalid as being directed to patent ineligible abstract ideas.

The Court found that the patents-in-suit do not claim an abstract idea, and if even so, they also claim an inventive concept sufficient to satisfy step two under the Alice framework. Sophos argued that "the '628 patent claims the electronic equivalent of certified mail, the '389 patent recited the concept of notifying the sender that a message was successfully delivered, the '199 patent claims the concept of notification when the certified