The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals has again relied on the Supreme Court’s Alice case to invalidate patents on the grounds that they are directed to an abstract idea. Realtime Data LLC v. Fortinet Inc. ( Fed. Cir. 8/2/2023) 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS 19857.

Realtime owned several patents covering systems and methods for digital data compression. In 2017 and 2018, Realtime sued a number of entities in the District of Delaware for infringement of five of its patents. The defendants moved to dismiss Realtime’s complaints on the grounds that the claims in the patents were directed to patent-ineligible subject matter under 35 U.S.C. section 101. In 2019, the district court granted the defendant’s motion and held that all of the claims in the five patents were invalid.