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ARTICLE · 29 AUGUST 2017

Federal Circuit: Improvement To Computer Memory System Not An Unpatentable Abstract Idea

Holland & Knight
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On August 15, the Federal Circuit issued an opinion that further shaped the contours of what subject matter is patentable under 35 U.S.C. § 101 after the Supreme Court's decision in Alice Corp. Pty. V. CLS Bank Int'l...

United StatesIntellectual Property
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Lin Weeks is an associate at Holland & Knight's New York office

On August 15, the Federal Circuit issued an opinion that further shaped the contours of what subject matter is patentable under 35 U.S.C. § 101 after the Supreme Court's decision in Alice Corp. Pty. V. CLS Bank Int'l, 134 S. Ct. 2347 (2014).  The opinion, Visual Memory LLC v. NVIDIA Corp., No. 2016-2254, 2017 WL 3481288 (Aug. 15, 2017), reversed the district court's grant of defendant NVIDIA's motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim based on invalidity for lack of patentable subject matter.

The patent at issue was directed to an improvement on prior art computer memory systems through the use of "programmable operational characteristics" capable of modifying the memory system depending on what type of processor it was paired with. Visual Memory, 2017 WL 3481288, at *1-2.  An exemplary claims is:

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