Online advertising patent ruled invalid
A software patent related to the exchange of copyright protected material for viewing adverts online has been declared invalid by the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circui t.
The dispute centres on a patent infringement claim asserted by online advertising company Ultramercial.
Ultramercial claimed that video distribution websites Hulu, YouTube and WildTangent all infringed its patent when they showed adverts before users could access its material.
Despite a California district court ruling that the patent was invalid the Federal Circuit later reversed the decision.
It was only after two interventions from the US Supreme Court, which twice vacated Federal Circuit rulings in favour of Ultramercial that the court affirmed the district court decision.
In its November 14 ruling, the Federal Circuit said the patent “adds no meaningful limitations to convert the abstract idea into patent-eligible subject matter”.
The US Supreme Court had asked the Federal Circuit to review the case again after the Myriad v Mayo decision of 2012, which saw two software patents ruled invalid because they were too abstract.
The Federal Circuit agreed with the Myriad ruling, stating: “We do not agree with Ultramercial that the addition of merely novel or non-routine components to the claimed idea necessarily turns an abstraction into something concrete.
“The claims’ invocation of the internet also adds no inventive concept. As we have held, the internet is not sufficient to save otherwise abstract claims from ineligibility under S 101,” the court added.
