Yanbin Yu

The Federal Circuit has triggered another debate over the proper scope of patent eligibility law. On June 11, a panel majority issued a precedential decision affirming the Alice invalidation of a digital camera patent asserted by inventors Yanbin Yu and Zhongxuan Zhang against Apple and Samsung, ruling that the patent was merely implementing the abstract idea of “taking two pictures . . . and using one picture to enhance the other in some way” using generic components rather than claiming a technological improvement. However, Circuit Judge Pauline Newman dissented, arguing that the majority’s decision improperly erodes the boundaries between patent eligibility and novelty/obviousness—and that the majority was wrong to apply Alice to what amounted to a mechanical invention.