US – Idée Abstraite + Ordinateur = Non brevetable


Dans Bancorp Services, L.L.C. v. Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada (U.S.), Fed. Cir., No. 2011-1467, la Federal Circuit a statué qu’une revendication d’un système incluant un ordinateur mettant en oeuvre des étapes évidentes permettant de résoudre un problème plus rapidement n’est pas brevetable.

As we have explained, “[s]imply adding a ‘computer aided’ limitation to a claim covering an abstract concept, without more, is insufficient to render the claim patent eligible.” …

To salvage an otherwise patent-ineligible process, a computer must be integral to the claimed invention, facilitating the process in a way that a person making calculations or computations could not. … Thus, as we held in Fort Properties, Inc. v. American Master Lease LLC, [671 F.3d 1317 (Fed. Cir. 2012)], the limitation “using a computer” in an otherwise abstract concept did not “ ‘play a significant part in permitting the claimed method to be performed.’ ” … The computer required by some of Bancorp’s claims is employed only for its most basic function, the performance of repetitive calculations, and as such does not impose meaningful limits on the scope of those claims.