Facts about Patent Eligibility

From today’s Patent Trial and Appeal Board decision:

“We are aware of no controlling authority that requires the Office to provide factual evidence to support a finding that a claim is directed to an abstract idea.”

Ex parte Johnson, Appeal 2016-004623 (January 18, 2018).

The ex parte appeal involves IBM-owned patent application No. 13/191,583 with a pending claim 1 that itself is quite an essay at 900 words. (NYT letters to the editor should be <175 words). The PTAB affirmed the examiner’s rejection of the claims as effectively claiming the abstract idea of “managing customer discounts following the receiving of a cancellation request by a customer.”

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Claim 1:

A computer system comprising:

at least one server computer, wherein the at least one server computer includes at least one program stored thereon,

said at least one program being capable of performing the following steps:

[1] displaying a first web page in a web-based interface linked to a web portal in an Internet, to an Internet visitor currently logged into the web portal by a web browser, wherein the displayed first web page comprises:

(i) a list of servers providing respectively associated Internet-based services currently available to the Internet visitor from an Internet service provider that provides the servers and the respectively associated Internet based services to the Internet visitor via the web-based interface and

(ii) a clickable cancellation link for each listed server, and wherein the web-based interface is on a computer screen surface;

[2] receiving a first click by the Internet visitor in the first web page, on a first cancellation link for a first server selected from the list of servers on the web-based user interface, wherein the received first click communicates that a first Internet-based service associated with the selected first server is being cancelled by the Internet visitor;

[3] in response to said receiving the first click on the first cancellation link, automatically displaying to the Internet visitor, on the web-based user interface, a second web page that includes a service cancel link and a list of selectable reasons for cancelling the first Internet-based service associated with the selected first server;

[4] after said displaying the second web page, receiving a second click on the service cancel link, by the Internet visitor in the second web page, and further receiving one or more reasons for cancelling the first Internet-based service associated with the selected first server, said one or more reasons having been selected by the Internet visitor from the list of selectable reasons on the second web page;

[5] in response to said receiving the second click on the service cancel link:

(i) automatically generating a service cancellation request for cancelling the first Internet-based service associated with the selected first server,

(ii) automatically creating a cancellation request record in a table of a cancellation request database of the Internet service provider, wherein the cancellation request record comprises a status of the service cancellation request, and

(iii) automatically generating a ticket for tracking the service cancellation request;

[6] storing a ticket record in a table of a ticket database of the Internet service provider, wherein the ticket record includes ticket information on content ofthe ticket and further includes a status of the ticket, and wherein the cancellation request record includes a foreign key that points to the ticket;

[7] generating a cross reference lookup table that links the ticket to the first Internet-based service associated with the selected first server, wherein a service database of the Internet service provider comprises information specific to the first Internet-based service associated with the selected first server;

[8] linking the first Internet-based service associated with the selected first server to the cancellation request record;

[9] creating a cancellation request item record in a table of a cancellation request items database of the Internet service provider, wherein the cancellation request item record comprises a status of a billing item associated with the first Internet-based service associated with the selected first server and further comprises a requested cancellation date for cancelling the first Internet-based service associated with the selected first server, and wherein the billing item includes billing information pertaining to the first Internet-based service associated with the selected first server, wherein the cancellation request item record comprises a first foreign key and a second foreign key, wherein the first foreign key points to the cancellation request record, wherein the second foreign key points to the billing item, wherein records in the cancellation request item database are used to link to records in a billing item database of the Internet service provider, and wherein the records in the billing item database comprise a billing item record;

[10] moving the ticket to a service queue;

[11] after said moving the ticket to the service queue, displaying to the Internet visitor, on the web-based user interface, a third web page that presents to the Internet visitor a discount offer of a discount amount for the first Internet-based service associated with the selected first server;

[12] after said displaying the third web page, receiving a third click by the Internet visitor in the third web page denoting the Internet visitor’s acceptance of the discount offer and in response, displaying in another web-based interface on another computer screen surface, to a customer service representative assigned to the ticket, information pertaining to the discount amount accepted by the Internet visitor;

[13] after said displaying, in the other web-based interface, the information pertaining to the discount amount, receiving an entry, in the other web-based interface from the customer service representative, data comprising the discount amount and receiving a click by the customer service representative of a checkbox in the other web-based interface which triggers updating the ticket with the discount amount and generating an invoice, reflecting the discount amount, for the Internet-based service; and

[14] after said updating the ticket with the discount amount and said generating the invoice, closing the ticket.