Patent's Explicit Description Of Claimed Advantages Defeats § 101 Challenge

Reversing a district court's motion to dismiss, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit found patent claims directed to cardiac monitoring devices patent eligible under 35 USC § 101 because the claims were directed to a technical improvement to the function of such devices. CardioNet, LLC v. InfoBionic, Inc., Case No. 19-1149 (Fed. Cir. Apr. 17, 2020) (Stoll, J.) (Dyk, J., dissenting in part, concurring in the result).

CardioNet owns a patent directed to cardiac monitoring systems and techniques. The patent describes detecting and distinguishing atrial fibrillation (AF or A-fib) and atrial flutter (AFL) from other forms of cardiac arrhythmia (abnormal heart rhythms), such as ventricular tachycardia (V-TACH). The patent describes using electrodes on a patient's skin to measure electrical signals of the heart and determining beat-to-beat variability in heart rate over a series of between 20 and 200 recent R-waves (peaks of QRS complexes shown on an