"Curiouser and Curiouser!”: Federal Circuit Affirms PTAB Patent-Ineligibility Decision Under Alice

On March 11, 2021, in an Opinion by Judge Reyna, along with Chief Judge Prost and Judge Lourie, the Federal Circuit affirmed the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) decision that the rejected claims of a patent application owned by The Board of Trustees of Leland Stanford University (Stanford), “are drawn to abstract mathematical calculations and statistical modeling, and similar subject matter,” and thus are patent-ineligible subject matter under 35 U.S.C. § 101.