Law360 reported that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld a lower court’s decision invalidating eight video and data-related patents asserted against Amazon, after finding that none of the patents could withstand the U.S. Supreme Court’s standard under Alice v. CLS.
According to Law360, Virginia Innovation Sciences asserted patent challenges against Amazon, along with HTC, in two separate suits that alleged each company infringed on its technology with various mobile devices and video products.
Law360 noted that in January 2017 U.S. District Judge Liam O’Grady originally ruled that the claims asserted against Amazon and HTC weren’t eligible to be patented under Section 101 of the Patent Act, in light of the two-step test from the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2014 ruling in Alice.
Judge O’Grady found the patent family was directed toward an abstract idea that was not transformed into an inventive concept through the use of a computer, and that “neither the patents’ individual claims nor their ordered combination can save it from that conclusion,” Law360 reported.
The Federal Circuit’s April 11, 2018, decision upheld this ruling, affirming the invalidation of the patents under Alice.
Amazon is represented by Fenwick patent litigation partners David Hadden and Saina Shamilov, and associates Todd Gregorian and Athul Acharya.
The full article is available on Law360 (subscription required).