News / Insights

Electric Power Group (EPG) continues to perhaps be the Federal Circuit’s weapon of choice (see my last post). Since April 30, the Federal Circuit has used EPG five times to kill patents.On June 12, in two companion cases (USAA v. PNC), the Federal Circuit considered the patent eligibility of four patents dealing with depositing a…

Over a one-week period, the Federal Circuit used EPG three times to strike down patents: Aviation Capital Partners (5/6/25 – taxable status of a vehicular asset), Geoscope Tech (5/2/25 – determining the location of mobile devices), and Longitude licensing (4/30/25 – performing digital image correction on a computer). Although non-precedential, these cases illustrate the wide…

Danger is lurking for artificial intelligence (AI) patents: it’s the Electric Power Group line of cases from the Federal Circuit involving patentable subject matter under 35 U.S.C. § 101. I’ve been warning about this for years. In Electric Power Group (2016), the Federal Circuit found that data gathering, analysis, and display is an abstract idea.…

The patentability landscape for computer-related inventions under 35 U.S.C. § 101 post Alice can be difficult to reconcile. So, I created the following graph to help simplify things. This graph reflects an empirical analysis of the Federal Circuit case law since Alice. The y-axis shows patent eligibility based on the patent’s claims, with those drafted…

Here is my article on the patentability of artificial intelligence inventions as published in the Syracuse University College of Law Yearbook 2023: