Asserted Claim of Improved Visual Perception Processor Patent Invalid Under 35 U.S.C. § 101

The court granted defendant's motion for summary judgment that the asserted claim of plaintiff’s visual perception processing patent encompassed unpatentable subject matter and found that the claim was directed toward an abstract idea. "Claim 29 is directed to an 'improved method' of analyzing parameters related to an event detected by an electronic device by generating a histogram while automatically updating the classification criteria. . . . [Plaintiff] summarily concludes that automatically updating the classification criteria of a histogram while the histogram is being calculated is not an abstract idea. . . . [Plaintiff] does not explain, and the [patent] does not describe, how the 'automatically updating' limitation is an improvement to computer capabilities. The claimed method of generating a histogram, even a histogram where the classification criteria are automatically updated, recites a purely conventional computer implementation of a mathematical formula. The use of 'electronic device' and 'classification memory' are not 'specific, claimed features' that allow for an improvement to computer functionality."

Image Processing Technologies, LLC v. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. et al, 2-16-cv-00505 (TXED October 24, 2017, Order) (Gilstrap, USDJ)