Information Access Authorization Patent Invalid Under Alice

The court granted defendant's motion for judgment on the pleadings that plaintiff's information access authorization patent was invalid for lack of patentable subject matter and found that the patent was directed to an abstract idea. "The wording of the claim appears to present a complex method that uses attributes, rules, connectors, classifications, and remote data sources. But, upon closer examination, the gist of the claim involves a user entering a request for access, looking up the rule for access, determining what information is needed to apply the rule, obtaining that information, and then applying the information to the rule to make a decision. This is an abstract idea. The abstract idea being that people who meet certain requirements are allowed to do certain things. . . . Even if the system is faster and more efficient than what was done in the past, that fact does not make this not an abstract idea."

Jericho Systems Corporation v. Axiomatics Inc. et al, 3-14-cv-02281 (TXND May 7, 2015, Order) (Kinkeade, J.)