Like many stupid patents before it, this month’s silly patent virtually claims the idea of using a computer for fundamental calculations. U.S. Patent No. 6,817,863 (the ’863 patent) is titled “Computer software, approach, and device for tracking nutrients content material of consumables and facilitating menu planning.” It claims the method of using a PC to track nutrient information like calorie or nutrition consumption. It is tough to consider an extra basic and trivial use of a computer.
The Haze
The ’863 patent is owned via a patent troll called Dynamic Nutrition Information, LLC. This month, dynamic Nutrition filed a lawsuit within the Eastern District of Texas, accusing Australian agency Fatsecret of infringing the ’863 patent. Emotional Nutrition had filed four different cases. Consistent with a sample of nuisance litigation, every of those in advance suits settled in no time.
What “invention” does the ’863 patent purport to cover? Claim 1 of the patent is reproduced in complete underneath (with remarks in brackets):
A computer application comprising an aggregate of code segments saved in a computer-readable reminiscence and executable with the aid of a processor to offer nutrition content material facts associated with consumables, the laptop application comprises:
a code phase operable to receive and keep an input related to intake of consumables, and to accomplice the enter with a calender [sic] date [i.E. Program a computer to track daily food intake]; and
a code segment operable to generate an interactive display screen, in which the interactive show display consists of— [I., E. Include some user interface]
One or more lists of consumables and associated nutrition content records, and [i., E. List food options and nutrition information] a precise segment of past intake of consumables. [I., E. List past food intake] In other phrases, the application of a computer to help people keep track of meals and calorie or diet intake.
The software for Dynamic Nutrition’s patent was filed on June eleven, 2001. By that point, computers had been around for many years. There was not anything remotely sudden or innovative approximately programming a PC to keep track of statistics—whether or not it’s nutrients facts or devices shipped or debts receivable or something. Nevertheless, the Patent Office takes an incredibly inflexible technique to determine whether a patent utility is plain. In this manner, agencies frequently get patients on commonplace sense ideas (like taking pictures of white history or filming a yoga class).
Even leaving apart the difficulty of obviousness, the claims of the ’863 patent are invalid beneath the Supreme Court’s Alice v. CLS Bank decision (which struck down patents that claim the use of traditional computer systems to enforce an abstract concept). Indeed, the first enterprise to be sued by Dynamic Nutrition, Under Armour, filed a motion to dismiss the case below Alice. Under Armour discussed that the ’863 patent itself repeatedly emphasizes that its strategies can be carried out by using any traditional computer or programming language. Given this argument’s energy, it’s unsurprising that the litigation settled before Dynamic Nutrition even filed a response.
Dynamic Nutrition’s patent is not even the best one claiming to use a PC for recurring meal planning. A patent troll, DietGoal, sued dozens of agencies with a meal planning patent. A court invalidated DietGoal’s patent underneath Alice because it claimed nothing more than the “conventional and quotidian obligations” of selecting food. The Federal Circuit affirmed that ruling. The good judgment of this decision applies straightforwardly to Dynamic Nutrition’s patent claims.
We recently launched our Saved By Alice assignment wherein we highlight instances in which corporations attacked by a stupid software program patients had been able to use the Alice decision to guard themselves. The Dynamic Nutrition litigation is another example of why the Alice ruling is critical and shields effective groups from patent trolls.
Computer Help Is Available Now
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