Check Processing Patent Not Invalid Under 35 U.S.C. § 101

The court denied defendant's motion for summary judgment of invalidity on the ground that plaintiff’s check processing patent encompassed unpatentable subject matter because the asserted claims were not directed toward an abstract idea. "⁠[Defendant's] characterization [of the claims] omits the physical processing of checks from the point of sale to a different location, and in a particular sequence. In so doing, [defendant] improperly construes Claim 1 to 'a high level of abstraction.' The character of Claim 1 . . . is directed to a physical process for processing paper checks in which data captured from a paper check at the merchant’s point of purchase is used to credit a merchant’s account, while the same paper check is scanned at a later time and in a different location to create an image of that check. . . . [T]he [patent] purportedly improves upon the prior art through the processing of paper checks, via two-paths, at different times and locations, and the physical movement of paper checks. This claimed advance is not directed to an abstract idea. Additional language found in the [patent] emphasizes that the claimed invention is rooted in an enhanced processing method and a palpable application of that process, in a different time and place."

Solutran, Inc. v. US Bancorp et al, 0-13-cv-02637 (MND November 27, 2017, Order) (Nelson, USDJ)