In a recent decision from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, the Court granted motions to dismiss and for judgment on the pleadings, invalidating two patents related to software for detecting cheating in the card game bridge. The ruling underscores the ongoing challenges for software patents under 35 U.S.C. § 101, particularly those involving data collection and analysis. The court applied the two-step Alice framework to find the patents directed to an abstract idea without an inventive concept, highlighting the limits of patenting mathematical techniques even in niche applications.
Background
This case centers on patents for technology designed to detect cheating in bridge, a trick-taking card game with over 165,000 professional members in North America. Plaintiff, The EDGAR Association (“EDGAR”), owns and developed a competing system called EDGAR (Everyone Deserves a Game Above Reproach), which uses data analysis to generate reports on potential cheating. EDGAR filed suit seeking declaratory judgments that U.S. Patent Nos. 11,014,005 (the “‘005 Patent”) and 11,439,912 (the “‘912 Patent”)—owned by Defendants Nicolas Hammond and Hammond Software, Inc. (collectively, the “Hammond Defendants”)—are invalid and not infringed.
The ‘005 Patent, titled “Detecting Cheating and Changes in Playing Ability in Partial Knowledge and Trick-Taking Games,” issued on May 25, 2021, contains 20 claims, including three independent claims. The ‘912 Patent, a continuation of the ‘005 Patent, issued on September 13, 2022, shares a substantially identical specification. Both patents claim methods, systems, and computer equipment for detecting cheating by: (1) acquiring board data from bridge games (e.g., hand records, table results, contracts, and declarers); (2) determining performance values for players; (3) detecting deviations by comparing values against thresholds based on past cheating or optimal behavior; and (4) alerting administrators via electronic message.