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Cisco Systems, Inc. v. SRI International, Inc.

Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, No. 2017-2223 · judgment July 12, 2019


Certiorari denied · February 24, 2020
Pre-decision estimate: 8% cert probability (95% interval 5%–11%)

Before the decision, about 1.8× the 4.1% base rate. The model weighted this up for a circuit split argued in the petition, a dissent in the court below (flagged in the petition), and a Federal Circuit decision below, and down for a business respondent.

Question presented

35 U.S.C. § 101 provides that a patent may be obtained for “any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof.” However, this Court has held that § 101 “‘contains an important implicit exception: Laws of nature, natural phenomena, and abstract ideas are not patentable.’” Alice Corp. Pty. Ltd. v. CLS Bank Int’l, 573 U.S. 208, 216 (2014). Respondent SRI owns two patents that are both directed to a “computer-automated method” of collecting and analyzing data in a computer network to detect suspicious activity. The question presented is: Whether patent claims that recite only the abstract idea of collecting and analyzing data are patentineligible under 35 U.S.C. § 101 and Alice. (i)

Counsel of record

For petitioner
William F. Lee
WilmerHale, LLP

For respondent
Frank Everett Scherkenbach
Fish and Richardson, P.C.

Case

Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference

Linked docket
19A312

Proceedings

  1. Feb 24 2020
    Petition DENIED.
  2. Jan 29 2020
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 2/21/2020.
  3. Jan 29 2020
    Reply of petitioner Cisco Systems, Inc. filed. (Distributed)
  4. Jan 15 2020
    Brief of respondent SRI International, Inc. in opposition filed.
  5. Dec 09 2019
    Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is extended to and including January 15, 2020.
  6. Dec 05 2019
    Motion to extend the time to file a response from December 16, 2019 to January 15, 2020, submitted to The Clerk.
  7. Nov 08 2019
    Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due December 16, 2019)
  8. Sep 18 2019
    Application (19A312) granted by The Chief Justice extending the time to file until November 8, 2019.
  9. Sep 17 2019
    Application (19A312) to extend the time to file a petition for a writ of certiorari from October 10, 2019 to November 8, 2019, submitted to The Chief Justice.