Plaintiff Magnacross LLC sued OKI Data Americas, Inc. for infringing U.S. Patent No. 6,917,304. The claim-at-issue recites a method of wirelessly transmitting data through a communications channel from at least two data sensors to a data processing means. The method includes the step of division of the channel into sub-channels having unequal data carrying capacities, and transmitting the data through the sub-channels from the data sensors, which require substantially different data rates for data transmission.
The court analyzed eligibility using the U.S. Supreme Court’s two-step Alice framework. In step one, the court determines whether the claims are “directed to” a patent-ineligible concept, such as an abstract idea. Alice Corp. Pty. Ltd. v. CLS Bank Int’l, 573 U.S. 208, 217 (2014). If they are, the court proceeds to step two and considers “the elements of each claim both individually and ‘as an ordered combination’ to determine whether the additional elements ‘transform the nature of the claim’ into a patent-eligible application.” Id.
Addressing step one, the court found that the claim “describes nothing beyond the division of the channel and allocating sensor data to sub-channels.” The court noted that the Federal Circuit has recognized that claims directed to gathering, processing and transmitting data are directed to an abstract idea; and the court determined that the claim is similar to claims held ineligible in Two-Way Media Ltd. v. Comcast Cable Communications, LLC, 874 F.3d 1329 (Fed. Cir. 2017). In Two-Way Media, the claims recited a method of transmitting packets of information over a network with a series of abstract steps (“converting,” “routing,” “controlling,” “monitoring” and “accumulating records”) using “result-based functional language.”
The court found that, like in Two-Way, the claim recites functional language (“division,” “transmitting” and “allocating”) without any means for achieving the purported technological improvement and without any guidance on the kind of structure or how the division is to be achieved. The court reasoned that the claim is not directed to an improvement to computer functionality, but rather a generic process in which computers are used as a tool to improve efficiency. The court further noted that the specification fails to identify a specific improvement and, instead, generally offers improvements in relation to prior proposals in the field.
Addressing step two, the court found that the claim does not recite an “inventive concept” because it recites generic terms and routine functions. According to the court, the specification acknowledges that the claimed “data sensors” were known, and that the invention is not directed to a certain type of data or limited to any particular application. The court also found nothing in the specification describing the “communications channel” as anything other than conventional, or describing the division of the channel into sub-channels as inventive.
Magnacross argued that the claim solves a problem particular to wireless data transmission from multiple sensors with different data rate requirements by asymmetrically dividing and allocating data to a communications channel. The court, however, found that improving the efficiency of a process, rather than the functionality, does not confer patent eligibility. The court also noted that Magnacross conceded that the claim relates to “how to more efficiently use bandwidth to transmit data [from data sensors].”
Practice Tip: Patent Owners should avoid describing and claiming the advance over the prior art in purely functional terms, in a result-oriented way that amounts to encompassing an abstract idea. Instead, Patent Owners should describe and claim technical details for tangible components in the claimed system and how the functionality of those components has been improved, showing that such components are technologically innovative and not generic. In the data transmission field, Patent Owners should describe and claim technological improvements to components in particular applications, and avoid relying only on generic efficiency improvements.
Magnacross LLC v. OKI Data Americas, Inc., No. 3:20-cv-1959-M (N.D. Tex.).