On October 23, 2017, inventor and patent-holder Evolutionary Intelligence LLC (EI) will file a petition for writ of certiorari at the Supreme Court in Evolutionary Intelligence, LLC v. Sprint Nextel et al., appealing the Federal Circuit’s affirmance of a lower court’s invalidity decision under Section 101.
EI’s case is of substantial import to all inventors and patent holders, and the company is requesting amicus support. I hope readers will consider joining the fight.
A Federal Circuit panel affirmed the District Court’s decision to invalidate Evolutionary Intelligence’s patents, then denied a petition for rehearing and rehearing en banc. This despite EI’s having won several IPR challenges made by Apple, Twitter, and Yelp.
The positions are outlined in this Request for Amicus Support. Briefs would be due on or around Nov. 22. Your notice to opponents would be due on or around Nov. 10.
Relevant Materials
Here is the District Court Decision holding EI’s patents not eligible, and the Federal Circuit Decision affirming the district court. Here are US Patent No. 7010536 and US Patent No. 7702682. Here’s the PTAB Decision upholding U.S. Patent No. 7010536.
Background
Since Alice, district courts have invalidated hundreds of patents on the pleadings. Such cancellations offer patent-holders no opportunity for fact-finding, claim-construction briefing, or any of the other usual protections offered in patent litigation. The result is significant devaluation of patent portfolios.
Evolutionary Intelligence v. Sprint Nextel concerns artificial intelligence inventions, directed to dynamically optimizing mobile search results and notifications according to spans of time and physical movements through space.
For example, the invention enables a person standing in a particular spot at, say, 7:00 am to know immediately the five closest restaurants currently serving breakfast. While this feature seems common now, the record shows this was “groundbreaking” when the patents were filed.
If you have any questions or wish further information, please contact me.
