Federal Circuit Ruling on AI Patent Eligibility

This technical report discusses a recent ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit regarding the patent eligibility of artificial intelligence (AI) technology under 35 U.S.C. § 101. The court determined that patents claiming the application of generic machine learning to new data environments are not patent eligible. The report outlines the case of Recentive Analytics, Inc. v. Fox Corp., where two sets of patents were deemed invalid because they were directed to abstract ideas rather than specific improvements in machine learning technology. The court's analysis followed the Alice two-step framework, concluding that the patents did not transform the abstract ideas into something significantly more. The report emphasizes the guidance provided for patent prosecutors and litigators regarding drafting and defending AI-related patents. It also notes the potential for future patent-eligible improvements in the rapidly evolving field of machine learning.