On-Demand Media Bookmarking Patent Invalid Under 35 USC § 101

The court granted plaintiff's motion for summary judgment that defendant's on-demand media bookmarking patent was invalid for lack of patentable subject matter because the claims were directed to abstract ideas and lacked an inventive concept. "The [asserted] patent claims a method of creating a 'bookmark' to allow users to start watching a program on one device, then resume the program at the same point on a different type of device. . . . [W]hether the process was novel does not factor in the 'abstract' analysis. A novel abstract idea is still an abstract idea. . . . [T]he [patent] claims are directed to the abstract idea of bookmarking media files across devices, despite the presence of a server and a client. . . . [T]he court has no basis on which to find that the recited 'media-on-demand system' is anything other than a generic server/client system, nor that the 'media-on-demand server' is anything other than a generic server. . . . [T]he court fails to see how a bookmark can 'fundamentally alter' a file when it is replaced with a new bookmark whenever the user watches a part of the video. Moreover, the only actual change to the data is an update to a video’s starting point to account for any viewing activity from a different device, and such a change is more of a 'manipulation' or 'reorganization' than a 'fundamental alteration.'"

Netflix, Inc. v. Rovi Corporation et al, 4-11-cv-06591 (CAND July 15, 2015, Order) (Hamilton, J.)