Doc’s Orders: Analogize to Overcome Patent Eligibility Rejections

The Federal Circuit employed a common-law approach to determine what qualifies as patent eligible subject matter in Amdocs (Israel) Limited v. Openet Telecom, Inc., 2015-1180 (Fed. Cir. 2016). As some may recall, to deal with the difficult problem of identifying claims that are directed to a judicial exception (e.g., an abstract idea), and thus are not patentable, the court indicated that it is appropriate to begin with “an examination of eligible and ineligible claims of a similar nature from past cases.”  Slip Op. at 12.  “With this background in mind,” the court turned to evaluation of the claims under 35 U.S.C. § 101, finding them to be patent eligible. Id at 19. http://bit.ly/2ltokwB