Amazon Keeps Defense Win in AI Patent Case at Federal Circuit

A machine-learning patent issued to inventors at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and asserted against Amazon.com Inc. was abstract and therefore invalid, the Federal Circuit ruled.

The appeals court Tuesday upheld a New York federal district judge’s decision to invalidate the patent and grant the tech giant’s request to throw out RPI’s long-running suit. RPI and coplaintiff CF Dynamic Advances LLC sued Amazon in 2018, arguing its Echo voice devices infringed the school’s US Patent No. 7,177,798. But the case ended in March 2024 when Judge Brenda K. Sannes concluded the patent described a desired result rather than a “specific solution ...