Acacia’s device profiling patent ruled invalid

Patent asserted against 32 companies.

The U.S. Court of Appeals has confirmed that a device profile patent asserted by a subsidiary of the non-practicing entity Acacia Research Corporation against Electronics For Imaging Inc. (EFI) and 31 other companies is invalid.

Digitech Image Technologies LLC filed a patent infringement suit in a California federal court in August 2012 against EFI, certain EFI strategic partners and others. In August 2013, the district court invalidated the patent and entered judgment in favor of EFI and the other defendants.

Digitech appealed, and on July 11, 2014, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the district court’s decision. The Federal Circuit deemed the device profiles claimed in Digitech’s patent “a collection of intangible color and spatial information” and therefore not eligible for patenting.

SOURCE: EFI