The Federal Circuit today invalidated a patent that combined a way to obtain electronic bids from bond underwriters with web browser technology. Prior art allowed underwriters to submit online bids using proprietary software to a secure computer system. The patent holder tried to distinguish the old method by asserting that it didn’t contemplate allowing underwriters to bid using a simple web browser. A jury and the district court went for the patent holder.
The Federal Circuit reversed. It noted that an earlier patent "teaches the use of a web browser both to communicate information associated with a bid over an electronic network and to display information associated with a bid" and rejected the patent holder’s argument "that a person of ordinary skill would not have known how to implement the communicating and displaying steps of the ‘099 patent with a web browser during the relevant time period." Miniauction, Inc. v. Thomson Corp., No. 07-1485, slip op. at 12-13 (Fed. Cir. July 14, 2008) (footnote omitted).
Chalk up another invalidation under KSR Int’l Co. v. Teleflex Inc., 127 S. Ct. 1727 (2007).
