The Federal Circuit issued an opinion invoking Alice for the first time this year, affirming a district court ruling that the asserted claims of a price optimization patent owned by OIP Technologies, Inc. are invalid. The NPE has asserted the 7,970,713 patent in only one litigation, filed against Amazon in March 2012 (3:12cv01233). Judge Edward Chen, of the Northern District of California, dismissed the case less than six months later, ruling that the ‘713 patent describes an abstract idea that is patent-ineligible under § 101. “As Amazon notes in its brief,” wrote Judge Chen, “absent the computer limitations, which the Court has already rejected as insignificant, ‘a merchant in a bazaar could have performed OIP’s invention centuries ago—and no doubt did.’” OIP appealed Judge Chen’s decision with the Federal Circuit in September 2013 (12-1696).