By: Darren Crew

残夏の候、ますますご清祥のこととお喜び申し上げます。

The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has found that a system for filtering Internet content may be patenteligible under 35 U.S.C. §101. In BASCOM Global Internet Services, Inc. v. AT&T Mobility LLC, No. 15-1763 (Fed. Cir. June 27, 2016), the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit held that BASCOM adequately alleged that the claims satisfy the two-step Alice test for determining whether subject matter is patent-eligible under 35 U.S.C. §101. The Federal Circuit vacated the district court’s order granting AT&T’s motion to dismiss, and remanded so that the case can proceed at the district court.

Background

BASCOM Global Internet Services, Inc. (BASCOM) sued AT&T Mobility LLC (AT&T) in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas for infringement of claims of U.S. Patent No. 5,987,606. AT&T moved to dismiss BASCOM’s complaint, on the basis that each claim of the ‘606 patent was invalid under 35 U.S.C. §101. The district court found that, under step one of the two-step Alice test, the claims were “directed to the abstract idea of filtering content on the Internet.” Also, the district court found that, under step two of the Alice test, “the claims do not recite a sufficiently inventive concept to make them much more than an attempt to monopolize the abstract idea itself.” The district court granted AT&T’s motion to dismiss, and held that claims of the ‘606 patent were invalid as a matter of law under 35 U.S.C. §101. BASCOM appealed. —click here to read more—