Google Escape From Location-Search Patents Overturned on Appeal

The Federal Circuit rescued two patents that a lower court canceled in an inventor’s infringement lawsuit against Google LLC, ruling Thursday in a precedential opinion that the patents—related to geographically targeted search results—solve a specific, internet-centric problem and are patent eligible.

The panel, however, agreed with the lower court that two other patents covering digital business cards are too abstract to receive protection, as “the claims are directed to creating a digital travel log.”

Inventor Sholem Weisner sued Google in 2020, alleging it infringes his US Patent Nos. 10,380,202, 10,642,910, 10,394,905 and 10,642,911, which deal with ...