Adhering to its now-familiar two-step framework for determining
patent eligibility under the Supreme Court of the United
States' 2014 decision in Alice (
IP Update, Vol. 17, No. 7), the US Court of Appeals
for the Federal Circuit affirmed the district court's judgment
on the pleadings, finding all of the asserted claims invalid under
35 USC § 101 because the claims were directed to abstract
ideas. Two-Way Media Ltd. v. Comcast Cable Communications,
LLC, Case Nos. 016-2531; -2532 (Fed. Cir., Nov. 1, 2017)
(Reyna, J).
Two-Way asserted four patents related to a
"multicasting" system for streaming audio/visual data
over a communications system such as the internet. While
"unicast" internet systems typically transmit data
packets on a point-to-point basis, a multicasting system allows for
transmitting packets to multiple recipients. The patents explain
that this technology had previously been used to provide
internet-based audio/visual conferencing servicing, and
