Signal Processing Patent Not Invalid Under In Re Nuijten

The court denied defendant's motion to dismiss on the ground that plaintiff’s signal processing patent encompassed unpatentable subject matter under In re Nuijten, 500 F.3d 1346 (Fed. Cir. 2007). "In Nuijten . . . the Federal Circuit held that transitory signals did not fall within one of the four categories of patentable subject matter and thus were patent ineligible. Defendant misses a key holding in Nuijten -- the Federal Circuit allowed processing claims and only denied patent eligibility for claims that covered the signals themselves. Here, Claims 5 and 18 describe the process of splitting and synthesizing signals. . . . Neither claim covers a signal, and thus, a Nuijten analysis is unnecessary."

Hybrid Audio, LLC v. Visual Land, Inc., 2-17-cv-08968 (CACD April 5, 2018, Order) (Lew, USDJ)