A suit was recently filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas accusing a number of alarm companies of infringing on a patent described as “303 patent.” The cases were each consolidated. The defendant alarm companies filed a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim. The matter was assigned to a magistrate judge.
The patent referred to as 303 Patent related to a home security network system. The patent consisted of six claims, all of which were system claims. The defendants contended that the patent encompassed only an abstract idea of detecting an alarm and sending a corresponding message about that alarm to a third party through an intermediary that is not tethered to any specific machine or limited in a way that would make them patent-eligible.