Two Way Location Tracking Patents Not Patent Ineligible Under 35 U.S.C. § 101​

The court denied defendant's motion to dismiss on the ground that plaintiff’s two way location tracking patents encompassed unpatentable subject matter because the asserted claims did not lack an inventive concept. "Combining the dynamic 'buddy list' and 'use specific group' systems to GPS tracking constitutes a 'non-conventional and non-generic arrangement of known, conventional pieces.'. . . Instead of requiring a manufacturer to permanently link the two wireless devices, as in the child-tracking prior art, the users of the [patents-in-suit] can add or remove persons being tracked through modifications of the buddy list or through the creation of a use specific group. . . . [T]he combination of a dynamic buddy list or use specific group and GPS technology transforms the abstract idea of the gathering, transmission, and display of the location information of a certain subset of individuals from a list or individuals requested to perform a service into a 'specific, discrete implementation' of this idea that is sufficient to qualify as patent-eligible subject matter."

X One, Inc. v. Uber Technologies, Inc., 5-16-cv-06050 (CAND March 6, 2017, Order) (Koh, USDJ)