In two recent cases addressing patent eligibility of software
patent claims, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit
found the challenged claims patent ineligible. In both cases, the
Federal Circuit cited its Enfish decision (
IP Update, Vol. 19, No. 6) and its McRO
decision (
IP Update, Vol. 19, No. 10) in delineating what
qualifies as patent-eligible subject matter in software patent
claims. FairWarning IP, LLC v. Iatric Systems, Inc., Case
No. 15-1985 (Fed. Cir., Oct. 11, 2016) (Stoll, J); Synopsys,
Inc. v. Mentor Graphics Corporation, Case No. 15-1599 (Fed.
Cir., Oct. 17, 2016) (Chen, J).
In FairWarning, the patent at issue related to
detecting fraud and misuse by identifying unusual patterns in
users' access to sensitive data. According to the patent
specification, pre-existing systems were able to record audit log
data concerning user access of digital stored sensitive data. The
invention aimed to automate this process by recording the sensitive
data,
