The United States Supreme Court declined an appeal made by American Axle and Manufacturing Inc. in its aim to revive its patent technology for quieting driveshaft noise.
The rejection of the appeal arises out of a patent infringement lawsuit between American Axle and its rival Neapco Holdings filed in 2015.
As it has become a norm for defendants in a patent infringement case Neapco also challenged the validity of the patent in question.
In the Alice Corp v. CLS ruling, the Supreme Court had addressed patent eligibility and had established a two-part eligibility test that required the courts to determine whether the invention includes an unpatentable abstract idea, natural phenomenon, or law of nature, and if so, whether it includes an inventive concept.
This ruling and following decision has caused much confusion which has led to courts often rejecting patents on inventions that should rightfully be protected.
A judge in Delaware had ruled in the favor of Neapco. American Axle made another appeal to the Washington Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit but lost again. A 3-judge panel voted to invalidate the patent after it found that it had been an application of a well-known physics principle – Hooke’s law.
This decision by the Supreme Court has given rise to concern about the rising conservative majority as is also seen in its striking down of other well-established precedents such as Roe v. Wade.
The courts inclination to also reject hearing patent eligibility suits is harmful, threatening other patents that have already been granted and turning patent systems to a “litigation gamble”.
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