DoubleClick filed suit alleging infringement of its patent on a system for delivering and measuring Internet advertising. Court issues preliminary injunction barring defendant from using patented technology. Patent at issue involved adding a field to record of information on long distance calls denoting identity of company that carried call, and related information, with value in field determined by application of Boolean logic. Subject matter was held to be patentable, overturning district court. Court reaffirmed decision in State Street Bank , and noted that exclusion from patentable subject matter for mathematical algorithms applies only to abstract formulas, not to distinct applications of them.
Plaintiffs allege infringement of patent for secure time-stamping of digital documents.
Some observers have noted that the patent, if upheld, would cover operations common to nearly every time stamping and encryption process in existence. According to the court's opinion, this was not a change in doctrine but the laying to rest of a misconception that there was a business methods exception to patentable subject matter. Responding to concerns that holders of business method patents would have unduly broad monopoly, the court said that this is a question of claim drafting and examination, not subject matter. The patent at issue was for a data processing system to implement an investment structure for mutual funds that facilitates the administration and accounting of the funds. 989 F. Supp.