The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit invalidated an Acacia Research Corporation patent on Friday, handing a win to a big group of retailers and digital camera companies represented by Mark Lemley of Durie Tangri. Lemley may have had an assist from the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Alice Corporation v. CLS Bank International, which urged the Federal Circuit to take a narrower view of what ideas are eligible for patent protection.
In a 13-page ruling that repeatedly cites Alice Corp., the Federal Circuit affirmed a prior ruling that Acacia subsidiary Digitech Image Technologies can’t assert a patent relating to digital image processing technology. The court concluded that the Digitech patent covers two distinct concepts—a set of data and a method for using it—and that neither concept is patent eligible subject matter.
