Irish NPE Data Scape Limited has hit a snag in its ongoing cloud computing campaign with the invalidation of four of its patents under Alice. In an order issued on May 17, District Judge David O. Carter of the Central District of California granted a Rule 12 challenge filed by defendant Western Digital, holding that the four patents are invalid as directed to the abstract idea of “data storage, transfer, and processing” without the addition of an inventive concept. The patents just invalidated are at issue throughout the campaign, and Judge Carter’s ruling has already prompted the plaintiff to file a series of new complaints asserting patents not yet invalidated—including one asserted for the first time.