Mass. Federal Court Invalidates Eight Patents Asserted Against Wayfair

On August 16, 2023, U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton of the District of Massachusetts issued an order granting the vast majority of a motion to dismiss filed by Brann & Isaacson on behalf of its client, Wayfair. The plaintiff, a non-practicing entity called Alto Dynamics, asserted nine now expired patents against Wayfair in a...

Letter Request Requirement in East Texas Takes An Absurdist Turn

We’ve written before about the unique requirement some judges in the Eastern District of Texas impose on accused infringers, requiring them to obtain leave of court before filing a motion testing the patent–eligibility of an asserted patent under Alice v. CLS Bank. This requirement makes it harder for accused infringers to get a dispositive issue...

The New Normal? Federal Circuit Affirms Invalidity Under Alice

Yesterday, the Federal Circuit issued an opinion in buySAFE v. Google, its latest opinion on patent eligibility after Alice v. CLS Bank, affirming the judgment of the district court that the asserted claims were invalid because they claimed nothing more than the abstract idea of guaranteeing performance of a transaction implemented on a computer. Perhaps the...