Accenture Global Servs. GMBH v. Guidewire Software, Inc., No. 11-1486 (Fed. Cir. 2013)
Annotate this CaseAccenture alleged infringement of its patent, which describes a “computer program ... for handling insurance-related tasks” and discloses software components of the program, including a “data component that stores, retrieves and manipulates data” and a client component that “transmits and receives data to/from the data component.” The client component includes a business component that “serves as a data cache and includes logic for manipulating the data.” The program also describes a controller component to handle program events and an adapter component to interface with a data repository. The district court found all of the claims invalid under 35 U.S.C. 101. Accenture appealed only with respect to claims 1–7, directed to a system for generating tasks to be performed in an insurance organization, but did not appeal the similar method claims 8–22. The Federal Circuit affirmed, holding that the system claims at issue recite patent-ineligible subject matter both because Accenture was unable to point to any substantial limitations that separate them from the similar, patent-ineligible method claim and because the system claim does not, on its own, provide substantial limitations to the claim’s patent-ineligible abstract idea.
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