Recognicorp v. Nintendo (Supreme Court 2017) [RecogPetition]
The new Supreme Court petition for writ of certiorari asks the following questions:
In Alice Corp. Pty. Ltd. v. CLS Bank Int’l, 134 S. Ct. 2347 (2014), the Court set forth a two-step test for determining whether computer-implemented inventions claim patentable subject matter under 35 U.S.C. § 101. First, a court must determine whether the claims at issue are “directed to” an abstract idea. Second, if the claims are “directed to” an abstract idea, the court must then determine whether the claims recite inventive concepts — elements which ensure that the patent amounts to significantly more than a patent upon the abstract idea itself.
The questions presented are:
1. Whether computer-implemented inventions that provide specific improvements to existing technological processes for encoding or decoding data are patent-eligible under the first step of the Alice test, even if those inventions involve or make use of abstract ideas.
2. Whether the use of new mathematical algorithms to improve existing technological processes by reducing bandwidth and memory usage can constitute “inventive concepts” under the second step of the Alice test.
The patent at issue here is U.S. Patent No. 8,005,303 that is generally directed toward a mechanism for creating a composite image. In the brief, the patentee explains that the method allows the use of “composite facial image codes” to represent a face.
Claim 1. A method for creating a composite image, comprising:
displaying facial feature images on a first area of a first display …, wherein the facial feature images are associated with facial feature element codes;
selecting a facial feature image from the first area … via a user interface …
wherein the first device incorporates the selected facial feature image into a composite image …, wherein the composite image is associated with a composite facial image code … wherein the composite facial image code is derived by performing at least one multiplication operation on a facial code using one or more code factors as input parameters …; and
reproducing the composite image on a second display based on the composite facial image code.
After reading through this claim, I’ll give this petition approximately 0% of winning.
