RCT’s method patents affirmed in Federal Circuit’s first section 101 decision since Bilski

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled in favor of Finnegan client Research Corporation Technologies, Inc., affirming the patentability of RCT’s methods for halftoning digital images.  The decision is particularly important because it is the Federal Circuit's first dealing with patentable subject matter under 35 U.S.C. § 101 since the Supreme Court’s landmark Bilski v. Kappos decision.  Chief Judge Rader, writing for a unanimous panel, reversed the district court’s ruling that the claimed halftoning methods were invalid under section 101.  Instead, he wrote, “the invention presents functional and palpable applications in the field of computer technology.”  Following the Supreme Court’s Bilski decision, the Federal Circuit explained that the coarse filter of section 101 excludes only laws of nature, physical phenomena, and “manifestly” abstract claims, and that courts should focus primarily on the patentability criteria of the rest of the Patent Act.