In the case of In re Elbaum, No. 2021-1719, 2021 WL
3923280 (Fed. Cir. Sept. 2, 2021), Saul Elbaum applied for a patent
related to selling products on the internet using physical
locations, specifically where the internet retailer can pay a
physical retail location a finder's fee. The U.S. Patent and
Trademark Office (USPTO) and the Patent Trial and Appeal Board
(PTAB) found Elbaum's claims to be patent ineligible under
Section 101, and Elbaum appealed.
The application's specification described the disclosed
method as "enabling the sale of products or services which are
available on the internet," and the method allowed an internet
seller to provide a retail store with information about products or
services available on the internet. A customer entering the retail
store who obtained this information could then use the code to make
a purchase from an internet seller via a computer, which was
comprised of a "central processing unit, a main internal
memory, and
