IBM’s E-Commerce Patent Revived by Appeals Court (1)

IBM Corp. deserves a second review of whether its e-commerce patent covering data processing technology is invalid, an appeals court ruled.

The Patent Trial and Appeal Board must reconsider its decision to invalidate IBM’s U.S. Patent No. 7,631,346, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said April 1. The board killed the patent in two challenges filed by travel booking site Priceline.com LLC after IBM sued Priceline for alleged patent infringement. The two companies settled the case out of court.

The ruling demonstrates how the Federal Circuit interprets patent claim terms in determining whether prior inventions and ...