Inventor-controlled NPE WhitServe LLC has hit another patent eligibility speedbump in its decade-long assertion campaign with a new loss before the Federal Circuit. On April 26, the appellate court affirmed a July 2019 ruling by Delaware District Judge Colm F. Connolly that a data backup patent asserted against Dropbox is invalid under Alice, holding that the challenged claims are unpatentably directed to the abstract idea of “maintaining data records”. The decision follows another setback before the US Supreme Court, which late last year declined to hear the NPE’s appeal in another case that more broadly challenged the Federal Circuit’s approach to eligibility motions.