For three years the patent holder DietGoal Innovations has hounded dozens of food and media companies in courts all over the country, alleging that everyone from NBCUniversal’s Bravo Media unit to Dunkin’ Donuts infringed its patent for a system of computerized meal planning.
Several defendants have opted to settle, including Scripps Networks Interactive and chicken chain El Pollo Loco Inc. Now they may wish they’d held on. On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Paul Englemayer in Manhattan ruled that DietGoal’s patent is invalid, concluding that it covers an impermissibly abstract idea under Section 101 of the Patent Act.
