Appeal
from the United States Patent and Trademark Office, Patent
Trial and Appeal Board in Nos. CBM2015-00172, CBM2016-00040.
Jennifer Kurcz, Baker & Hostetler LLP, Chicago, IL,
argued for appellant. Also represented by Leif R. Sigmond,
Jr., Michael David Gannon; Alaina J. Lakawicz, Philadelphia,
PA; Cole Bradley Richter, McDonnell, Boehnen, Hulbert &
Berghoff, LLP, Chicago, IL; Steven Borsand, Jay Quentin
Knobloch, Trading Technologies International, Inc., Chicago,
IL.
Richard M. Bemben, Sterne Kessler Goldstein & Fox, PLLC,
Washington, DC, argued for appellees. Also represented by
Robert Evan Sokohl; Michael T. Rosato, Wilson, Sonsini,
Goodrich & Rosati, PC, Seattle, WA.
Katherine Twomey Allen, Appellate Staff, Civil Division,
United States Department of Justice, Washington, DC, argued
for intervenor. Also represented by Mark R. Freeman, Scott R.
McIntosh, Joseph H. Hunt; Thomas W. Krause, Joseph Matal,
Farheena Yasmeen Rasheed, Office of the Solicitor, United
States Patent and Trademark Office, Alexandria, VA.
Before
Moore, Clevenger, and Wallach, Circuit Judges.
MOORE,
CIRCUIT JUDGE.
Trading
Technologies International, Inc., ("TT") appeals a
decision of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board holding claims
1-22 of U.S. Patent No. 7, 783, 556 ineligible under 35
U.S.C. § 101. Because we agree that the patent is a
covered business method patent and the claims are ineligible,
we affirm.
Background
TT is
the owner of the '556 patent, which "relates to
displaying market information on a screen." '556
patent at 1:7-9. The specification states that the invention
works "particularly well" with the trading screen
shown in Figure 2. Id. at 3:8-11. Figure 2 is a
prior art trading screen disclosed in U.S. Patent No. 6, 772,
132, which displays bids and offers in association with price
values along an axis. Id. at 2:9-14, 3:12-16, Fig.
2. According to the specification, "traders are often
interested in analyzing other pieces of highly relevant
information that are not normally provided in an electronic
exchange's data feed nor displayed by a trading
screen." Id. at 2:18-22. Traders may "make
quick mental calculations, use charting software, or look to
other sources to provide additional insight beyond what is
normally provided." Id. at 2:22-25.
The
specification discloses "generating values that are
derivatives of price and then displaying these values along
an axis on a screen." Id. at 3:22-25. The
claims focus on a particular price derivative, profit and
loss ("P&L"). The specification acknowledges
that "there are numerous ways to calculate P&L and
one of ordinary skill in the art would recognize the many
different possibilities." Id. at 13:61- 63.
Claim 1 recites:
1. A method for displaying market information on a graphical
user interface, the method comprising:
receiving by a computing device a current highest bid price
and a current lowest ask price for a tradeable object from an
electronic exchange;
identifying by the computing device a long or short position
taken by a user with respect to the tradeable object, wherein
the long position is associated with a quantity of the
tradeable object that has been bought by the user at a price,
and wherein the short position is associated with a quantity
of the tradeable object that has been sold by the user at a
price;
computing by the computing device a plurality of values based
on the long or short position, wherein each of the plurality
of values represents a profit or loss if the long or short
position is closed at a price level among ...