George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School

CPIP Scholars File Amicus Brief in Trading Technologies v. CQG

a gavel lying on a table in front of booksEarlier this month, CPIP Senior Scholar Adam Mossoff penned an amicus brief in Trading Technologies v. CQG, currently on appeal to the Federal Circuit. The brief was joined by nine other IP scholars, including CPIP Senior Scholars Mark Schultz and Kristen Osenga.

The amici argue that Trading Technologies’ graphical user interface (GUI) constitutes patentable subject matter under Section 101 of the Patent Act. Noting the Supreme Court’s holding in Bilski v. Kappos that “Section 101 is a dynamic provision designed to encompass new and unforeseen inventions,” the amici urge the Federal Circuit not to interpret Section 101 so narrowly as to “impede the process of future innovation” by “creating unnecessary and innovation-killing ‘uncertainty as to the patentability of software.’”

The recognition that specific computer-implemented technologies are not “abstract” is wholly consistent with the Mayo-Alice test set forth by the Supreme Court in its recent Section 101 decisions, Mayo v. Prometheus Labs and Alice v. CLS Bank. Under the Mayo-Alice framework, Trading Technologies’ GUI is not merely an “abstract idea” incorporating conventional and automatic processes, but rather it exemplifies the technical innovation and “progress of . . . useful Arts” that the patent system is intended to promote.

The Summary of Argument section of the brief is copied below:

SUMMARY OF ARGUMENT

The trial court’s decision represents a proper application of 35 U.S.C. § 101. See Trading Technologies Int’l, Inc. v. CQG, Inc., No. 05-4811, 2015 WL 774655 (N.D. Ill. Feb. 24, 2015). Because the parties address the relevant innovation covered by Trading Technologies’ patents, as well as the application of the Supreme Court’s recent § 101 jurisprudence, amici offer an additional insight that supports the trial court’s decision: the invention of computer-mediated processes is exactly the kind of innovation that the patent system is designed to promote.

As the Supreme Court recognized in Bilski v. Kappos, 561 U.S. 593 (2010), “Section 101 is a dynamic provision designed to encompass new and unforeseen inventions.” Id. at 605 (internal quotations omitted). Thus, this Court should decline the invitation by Appellant to construe § 101 in a crabbed and antiquarian fashion that would limit patent eligibility only to “processes similar to those in the Industrial Age—for example, inventions grounded in a physical or tangible form.” Id. To do so would contravene the Bilski Court’s warning against limiting § 101 to only non-digital inventions, creating thereby unnecessary and innovation-killing “uncertainty as to the patentability of software,” such as Appellee’s graphical-user-interface invention.Id.

To read the full amicus brief, please click here.