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Enfish Does Not Save Patent Asserted Against Amazon, Facebook, Google, and HomeAway, Court Rules
A Texas court has declined to overturn its Alice invalidation of an email patent (7,010,572) asserted by A Pty Ltd. against Amazon (1:15-cv-00154), Facebook (1:15-cv-00156), Google (1:15-cv-00157), and HomeAway (1:15-cv-00158). In multiple orders issued on August 9, District Judge Robert Pitman denied motions for relief from final judgment filed by the Australian NPE, which had argued that the Federal Circuit’s opinion in Enfish v. Microsoft required a different Section 101 analysis than the one used by the district court. However, Judge Pitman’s August 9 ruling characterized Enfish as a mere clarification of Alice, as opposed to A Pty Ltd’s argument that Enfish was a rejection of Alice’s “previous analytical approach” as “flawed”. Since Enfish “did not depart from this framework”, Judge Pitman concluded, there was no basis for revisiting the earlier ruling.
August 12, 2016
E-mail Patent Asserted against Amazon, Facebook, and Google Invalidated under Alice
A Texas judge’s invalidation of an e-mail patent under Alice has resulted in the end of several lawsuits against Amazon (1:15-cv-00154), eBay (1:15-cv-00155), Facebook (1:15-cv-00156), Google (1:15-cv-00157), and HomeAway (1:15-cv-00158). The tech companies had been sued by Australian NPE A Pty Ltd., which accused them of infringing a single patent (7,010,572) generally related to transmitting an e-mail using a descriptor for the intended recipient instead of an e-mail address. On February 29, District Court Judge Robert Pitman granted five identical motions for judgment on the pleadings filed by the defendants, ruling that the ‘572 patent was invalid for claiming the abstract idea of an address directory without adding a sufficiently inventive concept to convey patent eligibility.
March 2, 2016
Failed Australian Company Asserting US Patent in Court
Australian entity A PTY Ltd sued Amazon, eBay, Facebook, Google, HomeAway, and Microsoft asserting a single patent (7,010,572). The patent-in-suit, which A PTY acquired from the inventor, relates to transmitting an e-mail using a descriptor for the intended recipient instead of an e-mail address. Defendants’ e-mail sending software and services are accused of infringing the asserted patent.
February 26, 2015