Eviscerating Patent Value
One way to eviscerate the value of a patent or portfolio of patents is to assert them unsuccessfully.
DealerTrack is a "provider of on-demand software and data solutions for the automotive
retail industry" and has a portfolio of four U.S. patents and at least five patent applications. As reported in the Wall Street Journal, the company announced today that a judge in the U.S. District Court of the Central District of California had declared a patent it was enforcing invalid in view of Bilski. The company is planning to appeal.
I have not yet seen the judge's ruling, but the only two independent claims in the relevant patent are:
1. A computer aided method of managing a credit application, the method comprising the steps of:
- receiving credit application data from a remote application entry and display device;
- selectively forwarding the credit application data to remote funding source terminal devices;
- forwarding funding decision data from at least one of the remote funding source terminal devices to the remote application entry and display device;
- wherein the selectively forwarding the credit application data step further comprises:
- sending at least a portion of a credit application to more than one of said remote funding sources substantially at the same time;
- sending at least a portion of a credit application to more than one of said remote funding sources sequentially until a finding source returns a positive funding decision;
- sending at least a portion of a credit application to a first one of said remote funding sources, and then, after a predetermined time, sending to at least one other remote funding source, until one of the finding sources returns a positive funding decision or until all funding sources have been exhausted; or;
- sending the credit application from a first remote funding source to a second remote finding source if the first funding source declines to approve the credit application.
(Sic.)
5. A computer aided method of managing a credit application, the method comprising the steps of:
- receiving credit application data from a remote application entry and display device;
- selectively forwarding the credit application data to a first remote funding source terminal device;
- wherein the selectively forwarding the credit application data step further comprises:
- facilitating the first remote finding source terminal device to selectively forward the credit application to a second remote funding source terminal device if the funding source associated with the first remote finding source terminal declines to approve the credit application; and;
- forwarding funding decision data from at least one of the first and second remote funding source terminal devices to the remote application entry and display device.
I do not yet know which claim(s) were asserted and/or invalidated.
