Recently, the Federal Circuit affirmed a decision of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, holding that the Board correctly determined that the claims 21–24 of U.S. Patent No. 6,754,640 (’640 patent) and claims 1-20 of U.S. Patent 8,768,840 (’840 patent), both owned by Bozeman Financial LLC (Bozeman), are directed to patent ineligible subject matter under 35 U.S.C. § 101. To reach this decision, the Federal Circuit first determined the appellees, all 12 of the United States Federal Reserve Banks (Banks), to be “persons” under the America Invents Act (AIA) and, therefore, eligible to petition for post-issuance review under the AIA. See Bozeman Fin. LLC v. Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, No. 2019-1018, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 11315 (Fed. Cir. April 10, 2020) (Before Lourie, Dyk, and Moore, Circuit Judges) (Opinion for the Court, Moore, Circuit Judge).
The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit recently ruled on a Patent Trial and Appeal Board (Board) Covered Business Method (CBM) Decision, affirming the Board’s holding that certain challenged claims of Customedia Technology’s patents are unpatentable as directed to the abstract idea of delivering targeted advertising using a computer. See Customedia Techs., LLC v. Dish Network Corp., 2018-2239, 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 7005 (Fed. Cir. Mar. 6, 2020) (Before Prost, Chief Judge, Dyk and Moore, Circuit Judges) (Opinion for the Court, Prost, Chief Judge). Customedia argued that providing a reserved and dedicated section of storage, as in the claims, improves the data delivery system’s ability to store advertising data, transfers data at improved speeds, and prevents system inoperability due to insufficient storage. However, the Federal Circuit did not find this sufficient for finding an improvement to the functionality of the computer itself.