Federal Circuit Affirms Invalidity of Blockchain Gemstone Tracking Patent Under Section 101
Patent – Patently-O 2024-04-02
Summary:
by Dennis Crouch
In Rady v. The Boston Consulting Group, Inc., No. 2022-2218 (Fed. Cir. Mar. 27, 2024), the Federal Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a patent infringement lawsuit, holding that the asserted claims of Rady’s US10469250 were ineligible under 35 U.S.C. § 101. The patent, owned by Max Rady, patent describes scanning a physical item, determining its unique pattern of imperfections (i.e., “signature”), and recording that signature to a blockchain if not previously registered.
Claim 1, treated as representative, recites:
A network node comprising:
one or more processing devices;
a storage device […];
a communications subsystem […]; and
item analysis components […] comprising at least one imaging device configured to determine spectral analysis data and 3D scan data […];
wherein the one or more processing devices operate to configure the network node to: analyze an instance of a physical item using the item analysis components to determine a unique signature […] using 3D spatial mapping […] from the spectral analysis data and 3D scan data […];
determine, using the unique signature, whether the instance of the physical item is previously recorded to a blockchain […], comparing the unique signature […] to previously recorded unique signatures using 3D spatial analysis techniques, rotating in virtual space features of the physical item defined in the unique signature to determine a match […]; and
record the instance of the physical item to the blockchain in response to the determining […].