Video-On-Demand Patent Invalid Under 35 U.S.C. § 101

The court granted defendant's motion for summary judgment that plaintiff's video-on-demand patent was invalid for lack of patentable subject matter and found that the claims were directed toward an abstract idea. "Plaintiff briefly complains that Defendants’ descriptions of the patent claims are 'oversimplifications,' but it does not delineate what, if anything, Defendants leave out. . . . [T]he patent claims the concept of 'using the same hierarchical ordering based on metadata to facilitate the display and locating of video content.' To do so, the patent exploits matches between hierarchical identifiers – uploaded at one end of the process as metadata, and read at the other end to display listed videos – in order to facilitate the automatic [electronic program guide] listing of videos sent to cable companies by outside publishers. . . . Even though the [patent-in-suit] anticipates that its steps will be performed through computer operation, it describes a process that a person could perform '[u]sing a pen, paper, and her own brain.'"

Broadband iTV, Inc. v. Time Warner Cable, Inc.; Oceanic Time Warner Cable, LLC, 1-15-cv-00131 (HID September 29, 2015, Order) (Kay, M.J.)