Voter Verified, Inc. v. Election Systems & Software LLC

Verified’s patent is directed to “auto-verification” of a voter’s ballot. In 2009, Verified sued Election Systems, which markets automated voting systems, for infringement. Election counterclaimed that the patent's claims were invalid under 35 U.S.C. 101, 102, 103, and 112. The court determined that claims 1–93 were not infringed and claim 94 was invalid under section 112. No further analysis of section 101 was provided; claim 49 was invalid under section 103, but not infringed, while claims 1–48, 50–84, and 86–92 were not invalid under sections 102 and 103. The Federal Circuit affirmed the invalidity of claim 49 and upheld that claims 1–48, 50–84, and 86–92 were not proven invalid because, in failing to respond to these arguments in its summary judgment briefing, Election had not met its burden to prove its invalidity counterclaims. In 2016, Verified again sued Election for infringement, asserting that issue preclusion, or collateral estoppel, precludes Election from relitigating the section 101 issue. The district court dismissed, concluding that the Supreme Court's 2014 “Alice” decision constituted a “substantial change” in the law such that “the issue of patent validity is not precluded from further litigation.” The court determined that the patent was based on the abstract idea of “vote collection and verification” and that the voting system was made up of “generic computer components performing generic computer functions,” insufficient to transform the abstract idea into patent-eligible subject matter. The Federal Circuit affirmed. While “Alice” did not constitute a substantial change in law and the section 101 issue was not actually litigated, the claims are patent-ineligible. View "Voter Verified, Inc. v. Election Systems & Software LLC" on Justia Law