In a series of related actions brought by Acceleration Bay LLC, Judge Richard G. Andrews denied Defendants’ motion to dismiss due to allegedly patent-ineligible subject matter of three asserted patents. Acceleration Bay LLC v. Activision Blizzard, Inc., C.A. No. 16-453-RGA (D. Del. Aug. 29, 2017). The claims at issue related to a “broadcast channel for a subset of [] computers of an underlying network.” Id. at 2. The Court concluded that the claims were not directed to an abstract idea, rather “an innovative network structure for the distribution of data as the number of participants in a computer network is scaled.” Id. at 6. The Court rejected Defendants’ analogy to the claims as “the schoolyard game of ‘telephone,’” as analogy did not “present the same communication scaling issues as those that arise in computer networks.” Id. at 7. The Court instead analogized the claims at issue to those in the Enfish case as requiring “a specific type of communication structure designed to improve the way computers communicate as participants scale.” Id.
Acceleration Bay LLC v. Activision Blizzard, Inc., C.A. No. 16-453-RGA (D. Del. Aug. 29, 2017)
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