Patent for Creating and Filling Out Computerized Forms Invalid Under 35 U.S.C. § 101

The court granted defendant's motion to dismiss because the asserted claims of plaintiff’s patent for creating and filling out computerized forms encompassed unpatentable subject matter and found that one asserted system claim was ineligible for patent protection because it lacked a tangible form. "[Plaintiff] argues that Claim 1 is directed to specific components that, when considered as a whole, describe a narrowly-drawn, complete program for designing, creating, and filling out computerized forms. . . . [A]s a system claim, the system must exist in some physical, tangible form to qualify as subject-matter eligible under § 101. An intangible system claim is ineligible for patent protection. . . . Claim 1 is not directed to any tangible or physical component, form, or structure. Claim 1 is directed to abstract files, data, and programs in an intangible state, disconnected from the physical world in any way. The system claim does not 'claim any tangible part of the digital processing system' through which the files, data, and programs are stored, processed, or viewed. The preamble of Claim 1 does not describe a tangible medium, either, such that it could 'give life' to the claim."

Aatrix Software, Inc. v. Greenshades Software, Inc., 3-15-cv-00164 (FLMD March 30, 2016, Order) (Schlesinger, J.)