Court Opinion

ID: 9363701
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-01-17 15:00:35.612982+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:15:33.633784
License: Public Domain

Case: 22-1468     Document: 35    Page: 1     Filed: 01/17/2023

        NOTE: This disposition is nonprecedential.

   United States Court of Appeals
       for the Federal Circuit
                   ______________________

       RIGGS TECHNOLOGY HOLDINGS, LLC,
                Plaintiff-Appellant

                             v.

                CENGAGE LEARNING, INC.,
                     Defendant-Appellee
                   ______________________

                         2022-1468
                   ______________________

     Appeal from the United States District Court for the
 District of Massachusetts in No. 1:21-cv-10778-LTS, Judge
 Leo T. Sorokin.
                  ______________________

                  Decided: January 17, 2023
                   ______________________

     WILLIAM PETERSON RAMEY, III, Ramey LLP, Houston,
 TX, for plaintiff-appellant.

     RICARDO BONILLA, Fish & Richardson P.C., Dallas, TX,
 for defendant-appellee. Also represented by NEIL J.
 MCNABNAY, RODEEN TALEBI.
                 ______________________

    Before TARANTO, CHEN, and STOLL, Circuit Judges.
Case: 22-1468     Document: 35      Page: 2     Filed: 01/17/2023

 2                         RIGGS TECHNOLOGY HOLDINGS, LLC v.
                                      CENGAGE LEARNING, INC.

 CHEN, Circuit Judge.
      Riggs Technology Holdings, LLC (Riggs) appeals from
 a decision by the United States District Court for the Dis-
 trict of Massachusetts holding that the claims of U.S. Pa-
 tent No. 7,299,067 (’067 patent) are directed to patent-
 ineligible subject matter under 35 U.S.C. § 101. We affirm.
                         BACKGROUND
                                I
     The ’067 patent is titled “Methods and Systems for
 Managing the Provision of Training Provided Remotely
 Through Electronic Data Networks to Users of Remote
 Electronic Devices.” Claim 1 is representative 1 and recites:
     1. A method of managing training completed re-
     motely at a hand held device, said method compris-
     ing the step[s] of:
         receiving at a training server training data
         transmitted to the training server through
         a data network from a user of a hand held
         device, the training data representing
         training taken by the user at hand held de-
         vice;
         receiving identifying information for the
         user of a hand held device concurrently
         with the training data file;

     1   The parties agree on appeal, as they did before the
     district court, that claim 1 is representative for eligibil-
     ity purposes. Appellant’s Br. 4; Appellee’s Br. 12; see
     also Riggs Tech. Holdings, LLC v. Cengage Learning,
     Inc., 581 F. Supp. 3d 357, 360 (D. Mass. 2022). We
     therefore treat claim 1 as representative for our analy-
     sis. See Yu v. Apple Inc., 1 F.4th 1040, 1042 n.1 (Fed.
     Cir. 2021).
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 RIGGS TECHNOLOGY HOLDINGS, LLC     v.                       3
 CENGAGE LEARNING, INC.

         identifying the user of the hand held de-
         vice;
         authenticating the identify [sic] of the user
         of the hand held device by requesting au-
         thentication data from the user and com-
         paring the authentication data with a
         master user identification template con-
         taining authentication data associated
         with the user and accessible by the training
         server to determine if said comparison au-
         thenticates the user’s identify [sic] as an
         authorized trainee;
         recording the training data in memory as-
         sociated with the training server;
         locating at least one training file contained
         within the training data;
         determining status of the training file by
         comparing the training file with an associ-
         ated master training template accessible
         from memory by the training server, the
         status including a determination if train-
         ing represented by the training file meets a
         set criterion including at least one of: pend-
         ing, incomplete, failed, passed; and
         recording training status in memory.
 ’067 patent col. 29 ll. 2–28. In short, representative claim 1
 is directed to a method of managing training completed re-
 motely at a handheld device comprising the steps of (1) re-
 ceiving data related to a user and training taken by the
 user, (2) identifying and authenticating the user, and
 (3) determining and recording the user’s training status.
                               II
     Riggs sued Cengage Learning, Inc. (Cengage) in the
 District of Massachusetts, alleging infringement of “one or
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 4                         RIGGS TECHNOLOGY HOLDINGS, LLC v.
                                      CENGAGE LEARNING, INC.

 more claims” of the ’067 patent. Riggs Tech. Holdings, LLC
 v. Cengage Learning, Inc., 581 F. Supp. 3d 357, 358–59 (D.
 Mass. 2022). Cengage moved to dismiss the complaint on
 the basis that the ’067 patent’s claims are directed to inel-
 igible subject matter under 35 U.S.C. § 101, id. at 359, and
 the district court granted Cengage’s motion, id. at 363. In
 doing so, the court concluded that the ’067 patent “is
 plainly drawn to an abstract idea,” explaining that “the
 concept underlying the claims of the ’067 patent—provid-
 ing, managing, and/or documenting training completed re-
 motely on a handheld device—is akin to those found in
 claims the Federal Circuit has deemed abstract and ineli-
 gible.” Id. at 361 (citations omitted). The court also deter-
 mined that the claims contain no inventive concept
 “because the claimed components and features (e.g., ‘train-
 ing data,’ ‘server,’ ‘data network,’ ‘identifying information,’
 ‘hand held device,’ and ‘authentication data’)—none of
 which Riggs claims to have invented—are all generically
 defined and conventional.” Id. at 362 (citations omitted).
    Riggs timely appealed. We have jurisdiction under 28
 U.S.C. § 1295(a)(1).
                          DISCUSSION
      We review a district court’s grant of a Rule 12(b)(6) mo-
 tion under the law of the regional circuit. Yu v. Apple Inc.,
 1 F.4th 1040, 1042 (Fed. Cir. 2021) (citation omitted). Un-
 der First Circuit law, we review such dismissals de novo,
 accepting as true all well-pled facts alleged in the com-
 plaint and drawing all reasonable inferences in the plain-
 tiff’s favor. In re Loestrin 24 Fe Antitrust Litig., 814 F.3d
 538, 549 (1st Cir. 2016) (citations omitted). Patent eligibil-
 ity under 35 U.S.C. § 101 is ultimately an issue of law that
 we review de novo. Berkheimer v. HP Inc., 881 F.3d 1360,
 1365 (Fed. Cir. 2018).
     Section 101 provides that “[w]hoever invents or discov-
 ers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or
 composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement
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 RIGGS TECHNOLOGY HOLDINGS, LLC     v.                         5
 CENGAGE LEARNING, INC.

 thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the condi-
 tions and requirements of” Title 35 of the United States
 Code. The Supreme Court has long held that “[l]aws of na-
 ture, natural phenomena, and abstract ideas are not pa-
 tentable” under § 101. Alice Corp. Pty. Ltd. v. CLS Bank
 Int’l, 573 U.S. 208, 216 (2014) (quoting Ass’n for Molecular
 Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc., 569 U.S. 576, 589
 (2013)).
      In Alice, 573 U.S. at 218, and Mayo Collaborative Ser-
 vices v. Prometheus Laboratories, Inc., 566 U.S. 66, 77–78
 (2012), the Supreme Court set forth a two-step test for de-
 termining whether claimed subject matter falls within one
 of the judicial exceptions to patent eligibility. First, we “de-
 termine whether the claims at issue are directed to a pa-
 tent-ineligible concept,” such as an abstract idea. Alice,
 573 U.S. at 218. Second, if the claims are directed to a pa-
 tent-ineligible concept, we “examine the elements of the
 claim to determine whether it contains an inventive con-
 cept sufficient to transform the claimed abstract idea into
 a patent-eligible application.” Id. at 221 (internal quota-
 tion marks omitted) (quoting Mayo, 566 U.S. at 72, 80).
                   I. Alice/Mayo Step One
     We conclude that representative claim 1 is directed to
 the patent-ineligible abstract mental process of managing
 training that was provided remotely. The claimed steps
 accomplish nothing more than receiving information that a
 user completed a training and updating a record of that
 user’s training. These steps “involve making determina-
 tions and identifications, which are mental tasks humans
 routinely do.” In re Killian, 45 F.4th 1373, 1379 (Fed. Cir.
 2022) (internal quotation marks and citation omitted). As
 we have explained, “where the focus of the claimed advance
 over the prior art shows that the claim’s character as a
 whole is directed to steps that can be performed in the hu-
 man mind, or by a human using a pen and paper[,] the
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 6                        RIGGS TECHNOLOGY HOLDINGS, LLC v.
                                     CENGAGE LEARNING, INC.

 claim is for a patent-ineligible abstract idea.” Id. (internal
 quotation marks and citations omitted).
      That claim 1 performs the recited steps “on a generic
 computer does not save [it] from being directed to an ab-
 stract idea.” Id. at 1379–80. Our cases “have distinguished
 between claims directed to an improvement in the function-
 ing of a computer, versus those . . . that simply recite gen-
 eralized steps to be performed on a computer using
 conventional computer activity.” Id. at 1380 (internal quo-
 tation marks and citations omitted). Claim 1 is not di-
 rected to improving the functioning of the recited handheld
 device or server, and contrary to Riggs’s assertion, it does
 not address a problem “necessarily rooted in computer
 technology in order to solve a specific problem in the realm
 of computer networks.” Appellant’s Br. 18. Instead,
 claim 1 uses “conventional or generic technology in a nas-
 cent but well-known environment” to implement the ab-
 stract idea of managing training completed remotely. In re
 TLI Commc’ns LLC Pat. Litig., 823 F.3d 607, 612 (Fed. Cir.
 2016). The recited technology, like handheld devices and
 servers, are used as a “conduit for the abstract idea,” not to
 provide a technological solution to a specific technological
 problem. Id.; see also id. at 611–13 (holding claims reciting
 the use of a cellular telephone and a network server to clas-
 sify an image and store the image based on its classification
 to be abstract because the patent did “not describe a new
 telephone, a new server, or a new physical combination of
 the two” and did not address “how to combine a camera
 with a cellular telephone, how to transmit images via a cel-
 lular network, or even how to append classification infor-
 mation to that data”).
     As we explained in Killian, we have found “similar
 claims pertaining to data gathering, analysis, and notifica-
 tion on generic computers to be directed to abstract ideas
 at Alice/Mayo step one.” 45 F.4th at 1380. In Killian, we
 held claims reciting a “search algorithm for identifying peo-
 ple who may be eligible for [Social Security Disability
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 RIGGS TECHNOLOGY HOLDINGS, LLC     v.                        7
 CENGAGE LEARNING, INC.

 Insurance] benefits that they are not receiving” were “di-
 rected to [a] patent-ineligible abstract mental process.” Id.
 at 1379. We explained that the “claims must fail Al-
 ice/Mayo step one as they are directed to collection of in-
 formation, comprehending the meaning of that collected
 information, and indication of the results, all on a generic
 computer network operating in its normal, expected man-
 ner.” Id. at 1380.
     Here, representative claim 1 is directed to collecting
 and storing information using a generic computer network
 operating in its normal, expected manner. Thus, like the
 claims in Killian, claim 1 must fail Alice/Mayo step one.
 See also, e.g., Elec. Power Grp., LLC v. Alstom S.A., 830
 F.3d 1350, 1351, 1353–54 (Fed. Cir. 2016) (holding claims
 directed to collecting electric power grid data, analyzing
 the data, and displaying the results were directed to an ab-
 stract idea because “we have recognized that merely pre-
 senting the results of [the] abstract processes of collecting
 and analyzing information, without more . . . , is abstract”);
 Content Extraction & Transmission LLC v. Wells Fargo
 Bank, Nat’l Ass’n, 776 F.3d 1343, 1345, 1347 (Fed. Cir.
 2014) (holding claims directed to extracting data from hard
 copy documents using a scanner were directed to an ab-
 stract idea because the “concept of data collection, recogni-
 tion, and storage is undisputedly well-known” and
 “humans have always performed these functions”).
                  II. Alice/Mayo Step Two
      We also hold that the ’067 patent’s claims lack an in-
 ventive concept. A claim fails Alice/Mayo step two by
 “[s]tating an abstract idea while adding the words ‘apply it
 with a computer.’” Alice, 573 U.S. at 223. In Killian, for
 example, we found the claims lacked an inventive concept
 where “[t]he additional steps in representative claim 1 do
 no more than instruct the practitioner to perform the ab-
 stract steps of gathering information, determining if a per-
 son is receiving benefits or is eligible for benefits under the
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 8                           RIGGS TECHNOLOGY HOLDINGS, LLC v.
                                        CENGAGE LEARNING, INC.

 law, and displaying the results of that analysis, all on a
 generic computer.” 45 F.4th at 1380. The same is true
 here. Representative claim 1 recites the abstract steps of
 gathering and storing information using a generic
 handheld device and server, and thus it lacks an inventive
 concept. Indeed, the ’067 patent’s only purported advance
 is managing training that is completed remotely on a wire-
 less, handheld device (e.g., a cellular telephone). See Ap-
 pellant’s Br. 23–24; see also ’067 patent at col. 4 ll. 4–25.
 The Supreme Court has explained, however, that “limiting
 the use of an abstract idea to a particular technological en-
 vironment” is not enough for patent eligibility. Alice, 573
 U.S. at 223 (internal quotation marks and citation omit-
 ted); see also, e.g., Affinity Labs of Tex., LLC v. DIRECTV,
 LLC, 838 F.3d 1253, 1258–59 (Fed. Cir. 2016) (holding
 claims that limited the wireless delivery of regional broad-
 cast content only to cellphones “does not alter the result”
 that the “concept of providing out-of-region access to re-
 gional broadcast content is an abstract idea”).
      The ’067 patent’s specification reinforces the fact that
 the claim 1 implements its abstract idea through “well-un-
 derstood, routine, conventional components.” Yu, 1 F.4th
 at 1045. For example, the claimed handheld device “can be
 implemented” using “wireless, data-enabled hand held
 computing devices well known in the art.” ’067 patent at
 col. 9 ll. 18–23; see also id. at col. 3 ll. 25–58, col. 9 ll. 13–18,
 col. 9 l. 58 – col. 10 l. 18. Additionally, “[t]hose skilled in
 the art can appreciate that a variety of possible wireless
 communications and networking configurations can be uti-
 lized to implement a wireless network.” Id. at col. 12
 ll. 19–21; see also id. at col. 3 ll. 38–47, col. 9 ll. 53–58,
 col. 12 ll. 5–7, col. 12 ll. 22–28. And “[a]uthentication of
 training can be by username and password procedures
 known in the art.” Id. at col. 20 ll. 26–27; see also id. at
 col. 16 ll. 50–59. Finally, the specification provides no de-
 tail suggesting that the claimed “training server” is uncon-
 ventional or operates in an unconventional manner.
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 RIGGS TECHNOLOGY HOLDINGS, LLC    v.                        9
 CENGAGE LEARNING, INC.

     In sum, nothing in the ’067 patent suggests that the
 patentee intended to accomplish any of the steps recited in
 representative claim 1 through anything other than well-
 understood technology used in a routine and conventional
 manner. Thus, representative claim 1 lacks an inventive
 concept. See also, e.g., Elec. Power Grp., 830 F.3d at 1355
 (holding claims lacked inventive concept where “[n]othing
 in the claims, understood in light of the specification, re-
 quires anything other than off-the-shelf, conventional com-
 puter, network, and display technology for gathering,
 sending, and presenting the desired information”); Content
 Extraction, 776 F.3d at 1348 (holding claims lacked an in-
 ventive concept where the claims recited the use of “exist-
 ing scanning and processing technology”).
                      III. Rule 12(b)(6)
      Finally, we are not persuaded by Riggs’s argument that
 factual issues—i.e., whether the claims of the ’067 patent
 refer to conventional technology or not—preclude dismiss-
 ing the suit at this preliminary stage. Appellant’s Br. 24.
 We have held that patent eligibility can be determined at
 the Rule 12(b)(6) stage “when there are no factual allega-
 tions that, taken as true, prevent resolving the eligibility
 question as a matter of law.” Aatrix Software, Inc. v. Green
 Shades Software, Inc., 882 F.3d 1121, 1125 (Fed. Cir. 2018)
 (citations omitted). We also have explained that “where
 the specification admits the additional claim elements are
 well-understood, routine, and conventional, it will be diffi-
 cult, if not impossible, for a patentee to show a genuine dis-
 pute.” Aatrix Software, Inc. v. Green Shades Software, Inc.,
 890 F.3d 1354, 1356 (Fed. Cir. 2018) (Moore, J., concurring
 in the denial of the petition for rehearing en banc) (citation
 omitted). This is the case here. As explained above, the
 ’067 patent’s specification admits that the claim elements
 are well-understood, routine, and conventional, and thus
 the district court did not err in dismissing Riggs’s com-
 plaint.
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 10                     RIGGS TECHNOLOGY HOLDINGS, LLC v.
                                   CENGAGE LEARNING, INC.

                       CONCLUSION
     We have considered Riggs’s remaining arguments and
 find them unpersuasive. For the foregoing reasons, we af-
 firm.
                       AFFIRMED