Digital Media Synchronization Patents Not Invalid Under 35 U.S.C. § 101​

The court denied defendant's motion to dismiss on the ground that plaintiff’s digital media synchronization patents encompassed unpatentable subject matter because the claims were not directed toward an abstract idea. "The claims, like those in [Enfish, LLC v. Microsoft Corp., 822 F.3d 1327 (Fed. Cir. 2016)] and [McRO, Inc. v. Bandai Namco Games Am., Inc., 837 F.3d 1299 (Fed. Cir. 2016)], are directed on their face to an improvement to computer functionality: a more-efficient mechanism for synchronizing data between systems connected to a network by updating only changed data (or 'difference information'), rather than recopying all information. . . . As the specifications explain, the claims are directed to improving the manner in which computers synchronize data between devices connected to a network, by making that process faster, reducing the amount of bandwidth and storage space used, enabling synchronization across different data formats, and enabling synchronization without requiring devices to be physically connected."

Synchronoss Technologies v. Dropbox Inc, 3-16-cv-00119 (CAND December 22, 2016, Order) (Gilliam, USDJ)