US District Court Judge Throws Out Software Patent, Citing Bilski
US District Court Judge Andrew Gilford (Central District of California) granted a summary judgment motion (PDF, 47KB) in DealerTrack v. Huber et al., finding DealerTrack’s patent (US 7,181,427) — for an automated credit application processing system — invalid due to the recent In re Bilski court decision that requires a patent to either involve “transformation” or “a specific machine”. According to Judge Gilford’s ruling, DealerTrack “appears to concede that the claims of the ‘427 Patent do not meet the ‘transformation’ prong of the Bilski test.” He then applied the “specific machine” test and noted that, post-Bilski the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences has ruled several times that “claims reciting the use of general purpose processors or computers do not satisfy the (Bilski) test.” Judge Gilford analyzes the claims of the ‘427 patent, notes that they state that the “machine” involved could be a “dumb terminal” and a “personal computer”, and then concludes: “None of the claims of the ‘427 Patent require the use of a ‘particular machine,’ and the patent is thus invalid under Bilski.” DealerTrack apparently plans to appeal the ruling.
Hat tip to Joel Miller for the quick update and the copy of the ruling. ..bruce..
About the Author: bfwebster
Webster is Principal and Founder at at Bruce F. Webster & Associates, as well as an Adjunct Professor for the BYU Computer Science Department. He works with organizations to help them with troubled or failed information technology (IT) projects. He has also worked in several dozen legal cases as a consultant and as a testifying expert, both in the United States and Japan. He can be reached at 303.502.4141 or at bwebster@bfwa.com. 
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