US SUPREME COURT REJECTS APPEAL OVER PATENT VALIDITY IN POSTAL SERVICE CASE.
The U.S. Supreme Court said on Monday that it would not reconsider a decision that invalidated a patent held by Return Mail Inc at the request of the U.S. Postal Service.
The justices declined Return Mail’s request to revisit standards for patent eligibility that critics say have caused uncertainty in U.S. intellectual property law.
An attorney for Return Mail and a spokesperson for USPS did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Alabama-based Return Mail sued USPS in 2011 at the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. It accused the agency of violating its patent rights in technology for processing undelivered mail to be returned to senders.
The federal claims court determined in 2022 that Return Mail’s patent was invalid because it covered the abstract idea of “processing returned mail and relaying mailing address data.” It said the patent covered a process “historically performed manually by people” that used computers “merely as a tool” to automate it.
The patent-focused U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld the decision in February. Return Mail asked the Supreme Court in July to reconsider the case.
(…)Detractors have said that the ruling and subsequent decisions guided by it have created confusion that has led courts to cancel patents on inventions that should be protected.
Information taken from Reuters.
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