What can be patented
US Patent No. 7 v. Google
In brief
- Where it stands
- Dismissed
Petition denied.
- What it’s about
- US Patent No.
- Who it affects
- The denial ends the patent owner's request for Supreme Court review; it does not resolve its dispute with Google.
Summary: written with AI from the case record.
What it's about
7,679,637 LLC challenged a ruling that its patent claims were ineligible because they did not explain how they achieved their goal, arguing patent eligibility should not be a disclosure test; it also argued Google had to plead invalidity before its infringement suit could be dismissed. The Supreme Court refused to hear the case (denied review) and did not decide these arguments.
The case raised questions about whether patent eligibility can turn on how fully claims explain their result, and who must raise an invalidity defense in an infringement lawsuit.
Question presented
1. Whether a court applying Alice may hold patent claims ineligible at both steps because they do not describe how their result is achieved, so that the identity of the abstract idea has no effect on the outcome, converting 35 U.S.C. § 101 into a disclosure inquiry that belongs to 35 U.S.C. § 112, conducted without evidence, claim construction, or the challenger’s burden of proof. 2. Whether a patent-infringement complaint may be dismissed because the patent owner did not plead facts negating ineligibility, an invalidity defense that 35 U.S.C. § 282(b) requires the accused infringer to plead, and where leave to add those facts was denied as futile.
Documents
Docket activity
New analysis added
AI analysis generated: Case Briefing
AI analysis generated: Decision Record
Case data updated: summary, question_presented, generation_metadata
Case data updated: question_presented, extraction_metadata
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Brief added: Petition
Court Order added: Lower Court Orders/Opinions
Sources
Primary materials plus reporting. Best-effort analysis: this explainer relies on a mix of primary materials and trusted secondary sources. Official filings and opinions remain authoritative.