Patent Directed to Method and System For Making Loans Unpatentable Under 35 U.S.C. § 101

In a final written decision, the Board found claims of a patent directed to a method and system of making loans unpatentable under 35 U.S.C. § 101. "[Petitioner] has established, by a preponderance of evidence, that each of the challenged claims is directed to a fundamental economic or longstanding commercial practice of loan processing. . . . Whereas conventional loan processing required human beings to collect, compare, evaluate, and disseminate loan applications and loan information by hand, claims 1 and 19 recite the use of a database and transaction server to maintain loan applications so parties can search and modify the loan applications using those computer components instead of using pen and paper to perform these processes. . . . The Federal Circuit recently held that the use of generic computer functions to automate a price optimization process was a fundamental economic practice and abstract idea. . . . The challenged claims of the ’947 patent recite methods and systems for processing loan applications that fall squarely within the realm of an abstract idea."

Petition for Covered Business Method Patent Review by E-Loan, Inc., CBM2015-00012 (PTAB February 16, 2016, Order) (Calve, APJ)