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ARTICLE · 17 MAY 2016

Federal Circuit Finds Two Patents Directed To Specific Database Structures Eligible For Patenting, Not Abstract Ideas

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A new Federal Circuit decision gives software patent applicants some insight into when software can bepatent-eligible.

United StatesIntellectual Property
James Singer
James Singer
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A new Federal Circuit decision gives software patent applicants some insight into when software can be patent-eligible. In Enfish Corporation v. Microsoft LLC (Fed. Cir. May 12, 2016), the court reversed a district court's ineligibility determination for two patents directed to database structures. In the decision, the Federal Circuit stated: "We do not read [the Supreme Court decision in] Alice [Corporation Pty Ltd. v. CLS Bank Int'l] to broadly hold that all improvements in computer-related technology are inherently abstract.... Nor do we think that claims directed to software, as opposed to hardware, are inherently abstract and therefore only properly analyzed at the second step of the Alice analysis."

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