Alice Backs Anna: Federal Circuit Finds Miller Mendel’s Background Check Patent Abstract
Patent – Patently-O 2024-07-19
Summary:
By Dennis Crouch
In Miller Mendel, Inc. v. City of Anna, Texas, No. 2022-1753 (Fed. Cir. July 18, 2024), the Federal Circuit affirmed a district court’s judgment on the pleadings that the asserted claims of Miller Mendel’s U.S. Patent No. 10,043,188 (‘188 patent) are ineligible for patent protection under 35 U.S.C. § 101. The court also affirmed the denial of the defendant’s motion for attorneys’ fees under 35 U.S.C. § 285.
The ‘188 patent is directed to “a web based software system for managing the process of performing pre-employment background investigations.” Representative claim 1 recites a “method for a computing device with a processor and a system memory to assist an investigator in conducting a background investigation of an applicant for a position within a first organization.” The claim goes on to recite several steps the system performs, including:
– receiving data identifying the applicant, position, organization, and investigator; – storing a new applicant entry associated with the data; – transmitting an applicant hyperlink to the applicant’s email to view documents; – receiving an applicant response with reference data about a reference source; – determining a reference class and selecting documents based on the reference class; – transmitting a reference hyperlink to the reference’s email to view documents; – receiving and storing a reference response associated with the applicant entry; and – generating a suggested reference list of law enforcement agencies based on the applicant’s address.