An Intellectual Ventures (IV) data management patent (5,969,324) hit by an Alice challenge has been spared by the Eastern District of Texas, less than a month after the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) ruled that the same patent was likely directed to unpatentable subject matter under that same standard. In a memorandum opinion and order issued on August 24, District Judge Rodney Gilstrap held that defendant J.Crew had failed to show that the ‘324 patent claimed an abstract idea, rejecting the company’s argument that the patent was directed to the concept of “retrieving transaction records” (6:16-cv-00196). The PTAB reached the opposite result on August 2 in its decision to institute a covered business method (CBM) review of the ‘324 patent, finding that petitioner Sally Beauty Holdings had shown a reasonable likelihood that the challenged claims improperly claimed the abstract idea of “storing and retrieving transaction information through the use of a well-known security feature” (CBM2016-00029).