Mobile Navigation System Patent Not Invalid Under 35 U.S.C. § 101​

The court denied defendant's motion for judgment on the pleadings on the ground that plaintiff’s mobile navigation system patent encompassed unpatentable subject matter because the asserted claims were not directed toward an abstract idea. "Defendants argue that under step one, claim 15 is directed to an abstract idea because the claim is specifically directed to the idea of providing directions in a natural language. . . . Defendants argue that claim 15 is directed to an abstract idea because the claim is directed to a process that could be performed by a human with a pencil and paper. But a human with a pencil and paper cannot format route data into a natural language description that is generated on a server and then transferred to a local database. . . . [C]laim 15 is not directed to some abstract result or effect. Rather, claim 15 provides a specific technological means for remedying the specific problems with real-time mobile navigation systems that the [patent] sought to address: formatting the route data using a non-proprietary, natural language description."

InfoGation Corp. v. ZTE Corporation et al, 3-16-cv-01901 (CASD March 27, 2017, Order) (Huff, USDJ)