Source: https://bannerwitcoff.com/ip-alert-all-software-inventions-are-not-necessarily-abstract-enfish-llc-v-microsoft-corp/
Timestamp: 2019-04-20 14:45:40+00:00

Document:
Shortly after Enfish, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office released a memorandum to its patent examiners. In its memo, the USPTO noted that “an examiner may determine that a claim directed to improvements in computer-related technology is not directed to an abstract idea under Step 2A of the subject matter eligibility examination guidelines (and is thus patent eligible), without the need to analyze the additional elements under Step 2B.” The memo also reiterated to examiners that “when performing an analysis of whether a claim is directed to an abstract idea (Step 2A), examiners are to continue to determine if the claim recites (i.e., sets forth or describes) a concept that is similar to concepts previously found abstract by the courts.” (underlining added). Notably, although the Enfish court provided guidance as to how that Court believes the “directed to” inquiry should be applied, the USPTO’s memo simply reiterated its previous guidance without expressly including clear, additional guidance to examiners on that front.
Click here to download the decision in Enfish v. Microsoft, and click here to download the USPTO’s memorandum following Enfish.
1See DDR Holdings, LLC v. Hotels.com, L.P, 773 F.3d 1245 (Fed. Cir. 2014) (holding the claims to be patent eligible because “[w]hen the limitations of the ’399 patent’s asserted claims are taken together as an ordered combination, the claims recite an invention that is not merely the routine or conventional use of the Internet.”) See also 35 U.S.C. § 101 (a patent may be obtained for “any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof”).
2See Alice Corp. Prop. Ltd. v. CLS Bank Int’l, 134 C. St. 2347, 2355 (2014); See also, Mayo Collaborative Servs. v. Prometheus Labs., Inc., 132 S.Ct. 1289, 1297 (2012).
3See Enfish, LLC v. Microsoft Corporation, No. 2015-1244 (Fed. Cir. 2016), slip op. at 11.
4See Enfish, slip op. at 12.

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