iLife asks Supreme Court to reconsider Nintendo patent ruling
Technology firm iLife wants the Supreme Court to reconsider a Federal Circuit judgment on its $10.1 million patent case against Nintendo.
The Circuit ruling affirmed a US District Court for the Northern District of Texas decision to reject iLife’s suit, which accused Nintendo of infringing on its motion sensor patent with the company’s Wii console.
In a petition for a writ of certiorari filed on June 14, iLife asked the high court to clarify what constitutes an appropriate standard for determining whether a patent is “directed to” a patent-ineligible concept.
Also, it asked the court whether patent eligibility is a question of law for the court based on the scope of the claims or a question of fact for the jury based on the state of art.
iLife wants its decision on the writ of certiorari either granted, or held pending disposition of a petition in the contentious American Axle & Manufacturing v. Neapco Holdings case as it argues that both cases raise similar questions on patent eligibility.
American Axle
iLife argued that, similarly to in the American Axle proceedings, the Federal Circuit hinged its ruling on claims of iLife’s patent on specificity, with the circuit claiming that iLife “Failed to provide any concrete detail for performing the associated functions” and did not “focus on a specific means or method to improve motion sensor systems.”
“The Federal Circuit in both this case and American Axle applied an erroneous ‘nothing more’ test to determine whether patent claims are ‘directed to’ patent-eligible subject matter [The circuit] disregarded this Court’s admonition that an invention is not rendered ineligible for patent simply because it involves a patent-ineligible concept.”
Case History
iLife’s legal action against Nintendo first began in December 2013, where it claimed Nintendo had violated six of its patents with the Wii consoles motion tracking technology.
In the Texas District Court proceedings, Nintendo moved for a summary judgment that claim 1 of iLife’s US patent number 6,864,796 was ineligible subject matter, but the court declined to weigh in on the issue at the time.
The suit then went before a jury, which ruled in favour of iLife, awarding the company $10.1 million in damages.
This prompted Nintendo to move for a judgment as a matter of law, claiming again that assertions in claim 1 of the ‘796 patent were ineligible.
The court then granted the motion, ruling that the claim was linked to the abstract idea of “gathering, processing, and transmitting information” but failed to specify an inventive concept.
Did you enjoy reading this story? Sign up to our free daily newsletters and get stories sent like this straight to your inbox
Today’s top stories
