Alice by Market Sector: A Breakdown of 101 Decisions by Industry in 1H 2021
September 29, 2021
Recent RPX data on patent eligibility show that defendants in some industries fare differently than others when challenging patents under Alice.
In particular, a breakdown of Alice invalidation rates by market sector (specifically, by the RPX market sector assigned to the litigation in which the patents were asserted and then challenged under Alice) reveals that the E-Commerce and Software sector saw the most Alice decisions on a per-patent basis in the first half of 2021, with 35 patents adjudicated and an invalidation rate of 77%. The Networking sector was in second place with 18 patents adjudicated, though those patents fared much better, with a 39% invalidation rate. Courts ruled on the validity of just seven patents asserted in Consumer Electronics and PCs litigation, with five (71%) held invalid. Other sectors saw even fewer challenges resolved, with four Automotive patents all surviving Alice, two of three Media Content and Distribution patents ruled unpatentable, two patents asserted in the Industrial sector held to be not unpatentable, two Consumer Products patents both invalidated, and one Financial Services patent ruled to be invalid.
See RPX’s second-quarter report for more on Alice and other trends impacting patent litigation and the patent marketplace.
