Timing Is Everything: Alice in East Texas (Again)

Well, we warned you that Alice v. CLS Bank was going to remain a hot topic in 2016. Two more data points to support that theory have emerged, each of which, in a different way, relates to the proper timing of a judicial decision on the legal question of whether a patent’s claims are written...

Atlanta Attorney Withdraws Defamation Suit Against Electronic Frontier Foundation

It has been an eventful ten days or so for Atlanta attorney Scott Horstemeyer. On May 26, through counsel Sanford Asman, Horstemeyer, filed a defamation lawsuit against the Electronic Frontier Foundation for identifying U.S. Patent No. 9,013,334 as its “Stupid Patent of the Month” on April 30. Mr. Horstemeyer is the named inventor of that...

Total Eclipse of the Claims

Alice was a busy girl Labor Day week. In the space of two days, the two month–old Supreme Court opinion was applied by district courts in California, Delaware, and Texas to grant dispositive motions finding patent claims patent–ineligible for claiming computer–implemented abstract ideas. Loyalty Conversion: Sitting by designation in the Eastern District of Texas, Judge...