By Dennis Crouch The printed matter doctrine probably arises less than it should as its contours are likely integral to an understanding of the patentability of software related inventions. Like the abstract idea test the doctrine barring the patentability of certain “printed matter” is nonstatutory and judicially created. In the recent DeStefano case, the Federal Circuit vacated a PTAB anticipation decision that was based upon the printed matter doctrine — holding that the Board erred in its understanding of the test. Distefano claims a user-directed method of designing an electronic document.[1] The PTAB found that all of the elements of the claim were anticipated by a prior art reference except for the claimed requirement of “selecting a first element from a database including web assets authored by third party authors and web assets provided to the user interface from outside the user interface by the user.” Rather than finding that…
↧