Ashery Quoted re the Impact of Eon v. AT&T Mobility Case on Patent Drafting

Posted on May 11, 2015 in News

The Federal Circuit recently found a software patent to be invalid because of lack of disclosure of several computer algorithms (Eon v. AT&T Mobility). Larry Ashery, a partner with Caesar Rivise, was quoted in an article published by Law360 (on May 8, 2015) discussing the case:

Many attorneys who write software patents have in recent years stopped using the specific phrase “means” in order to avoid the requirements of means-plus-function claiming under Section 112(6), noted Lawrence Ashery of Caesar Rivise PC. But the Federal Circuit has recently held that Section 112(6) can apply even to patents where the word “means” is not actually used, if the patent just describes a function and not how it is performed. Anyone drafting software patents will therefore “have to be really careful on this point” and consider including an algorithm even if the claims are not written in the means-plus-function format, Ashery said.