NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has reversed a California district court’s ruling to invalidate patents on lip-sync animation technology, holding that the software patent claims at issue are not abstract and are therefore patent-eligible. Mishcon de Reya New York successfully represented McRO Inc., the owner of the lip-sync animation patents, as trial counsel in this decision.
The McRO patents combine complex rules for sounds, facial expressions, and conversational timing that allow the lips of an animated character to move in a high-grade fashion. The Federal Circuit determined that because the patents describe an ordered set of claimed steps that use unconventional rules in a specific way, the claims are not abstract under the Supreme Court’s Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank International decision, and are eligible to be deemed inventions.
“We are pleased that the Federal Circuit acknowledged our client’s complex animation technology as a patentable, marked improvement over the existing animation techniques,” noted Mark Raskin, partner at Mishcon de Reya New York and trial counsel for McRO Inc. “This decision will have a broad impact on similar patent cases that are currently pending, as it notably clarifies the question of software patent eligibility under Section 101.”
The patents in dispute are United States Patent Numbers 6,307,576 and 6,611,278.
Jeffrey Lamken of MoloLamken LLP acted as appellate counsel to McRO Inc. Mishcon de Reya New York attorneys Robert Whitman and John Petrsoric also represented McRO Inc.
