Attorneys at Andrews Kurth Kenyon LLP successfully represented The Jewelry Channel in a matter before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
In a January 11 ruling, the court affirmed the invalidation of patent claims asserted against The Jewelry Channel by America’s Collectibles Network as abstract and invalid. The court issued a one-sentence ruling, upholding an October 2015 Patent Trial and Appeal Board determination in favor of The Jewelry Channel, also known as the Liquidation Channel.
Both The Jewelry Channel and America’s Collectible Network (ACN) auction jewelry on air, and the patent claims focused on methods of conducting reverse auctions by telephone, television and the internet. ACN had previously filed a complaint for patent infringement against The Jewelry Channel, in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee. The Jewelry Channel petitioned the PTAB to review whether ACN’s patent was directed to patent-eligible subject matter.
The PTAB had ruled that under the prior decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit governing patent eligibility for covered business methods related to software patents, the ACN patents were abstract, and therefore not eligible for patent protection. The three-judge appellate panel upheld the ruling without comment.
The Jewelry Channel was represented by New York Partners James E. Rosini and Michael S. Turner, assisted by New York associate Susanna P. Lichter.
"We believed that the original PTAB ruling was correct, and it’s gratifying to have that decision affirmed by the Federal Circuit,” Mr. Turner says.
In its original October 2015 ruling, the PTAB held that the “claimed 'inventive concept' argued by patent owner is simply the application of the well-known offer-based pricing principles. Thus, even applying patent owner’s separate concept analysis, the claims do not recite an inventive concept that would transform a reverse auction into patent-eligible subject matter.”
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