Texas Verdict May Pave Path to More Juries Judging Patents

Patent attorneys may start looking to jurors, not only judges, to resolve patent eligibility fights after a financial services company convinced a jury to knock out a check processing patent, practitioners say.

East Texas federal jurors handed a win to accused infringer Jack Henry Associates Inc. in September after a judge, in an unconventional move, let them decide factual questions involving a PPS Data LLC patent. Their decision, that patent claims covered routine, well-known technology, prompted the judge to declare the patent invalid.

The case appears to be the first time a judge sent a factual question about patent eligibility ...