Executive Summary: In its Alice decision, the Supreme Court provided little guidance for practitioners to make patentability assessments. Comparison of two recent Federal Circuit decisions is helpful. The patents in Enfish and TLI had similar technological subject matter, but the Federal Circuit came to different conclusions regarding patentability. The Federal Circuit noted that the ill-fated TLI patent lacks detail and the disclosure describes several claim elements as “well known.” The claims also recite functional terms. In contrast, the patents in Enfish passed scrutiny under Alice. In the words of Iain Banks, “You have to have something worth saying and then the ability to say it.” Continue reading “Recent Developments in Alice: Enfish & TLI”
