First District Court Decision On Blockchain Technology Patent Eligibility

We have an update to our previous article, as the court in Rady v. Boston Consulting Group, LLC found that a patent directed to blockchain technology covered patent ineligible subject matter under the Alice test for 35 U.S.C. § 101. No. 1-20-cv-02285 (S.D.N.Y. Mar. 13, 2020) at 4-6. To our knowledge, this is the first time any court has specifically dealt with the issue of patent eligibility for blockchain technology. 

In a short opinion, the court determined that the claims were abstract under Step 1 of the Alice test because "Plaintiff's claims are directed at the abstract idea of collecting, analyzing, and storing data." Id. at 5. The court opined that "'network nodes,' 'processing devices,' 'storage device,' 'communication subsystem,' '3D scanning and spatial' devices, and 'blockchains' are similar to the computer hardware in Alice" and therefore abstract. The court further determined that the ability to track physical objects (in this case, gemstones) did not