XML Document Manipulation Patent Not Invalid Under Alice

The special master recommended granting plaintiff's motion for summary judgment that its XML document manipulation patent was not invalid for lack of patentable subject matter because it was not directed to an abstract idea. "[Defendant's] characterization of the claims as merely representing something as generic and broad as 'data storage' and its analogy of the patent to activities performed by a 'human translator' or something that can be achieved through use of a pen and paper, is excessively detached from the specificity and plain language of the claimed invention, and the overall intrinsic evidence pertaining to the patent. . . . The [patent-in-suit] is directed to an apparatus utilizing a specific method for dynamically retrieving, manipulating, updating, creating, and displaying data from different types of XML documents – documents that contain a very specialized, computer language and can differ significantly from business to business in terms of formats and syntax. Significantly, the 'apparatus' . . . as explained in the Specification, uses a structure that goes beyond relational databases and mere document sets. . . . [S]oftware-based patents in particular, such as this one, require a more close, and focused lens, or else the cautionary tale set forth by the Supreme Court in Alice, where the 'abstract idea' exception swallows the broad statutory language of Section 101, may in fact come to a fruition."

Intellectual Ventures I LLC et al v. Capital One Financial Corporation et al, 8-14-cv-00111 (MDD May 12, 2015, Order) (Lupo, Special Master)