Upon Reconsideration, Electric Power Group Renders Fleet Monitoring and Tracking Patent Invalid Under 35 U.S.C. § 101​

Following the recent Federal Court decision in Electric Power Group, LLC v. Alstom S.A., 830 F.3d 1350 (Fed. Cir. 2016), the court reconsidered an earlier order that denied defendant's motion to dismiss because the asserted claims of one of plaintiff’s machine communication system patents encompassed unpatentable subject matter and, upon reconsideration, found that the claims lacked an inventive concept. "Most recently, the Federal Circuit, in Electric Power Group, has clarified that 'enumerating types of information and information sources' will not turn an abstract idea into one that is patent-eligible. In this case, the fact that the scope of the [patent] is limited to freight assets provides no inventive concept. Moreover, the [patent] does not require any components that could be considered an 'advance over conventional computer and network technology.'. . . Additionally, while in its initial assessment of the [patent], the Court expressly relied on 'the specialized monitoring features described in [the patent], coupled with the format translation,' Electric Power Group is clear that identifying parameters for monitoring does not constitute an inventive concept. . . . [T]he claimed invention does not solve a problem deeply rooted in the context of 'computer networks.' The issue of incompatibility in communication has existed as long as language itself."

ORBCOMM, Inc. v. CalAmp Corp., 3-16-cv-00208 (VAED October 19, 2016, Order) (Hudson, USDJ)