The Federal Circuit invalidates business method patent on obviousness
Posted by Emil A. Georgiev on 13 December, 2009
In a recent patent infringement case, the US Court of Appeal for the Federal Circuit decided that claimant’s patent claims were infringed, but invalid as the Court held them obvious and thus non-inventive.
Claimant’s alleged invention claimed a “method of purchasing goods or services over a data network”. In fact the claimed invention offered an e-commerce platform to both purchasers and vendors and filtered their requirements in order to achieve a match between their demands. Could that be inventive nowadays? Upon outlining the exisiting prior art, the Federal Circuit said “No” .
Nothing unusual, at least from a european perspective.
