On February 28, 2014, Judge Lynn issued an order (available here) in Placemark Investments v. Prudential Investments. The defendants in the case had filed motions to dismiss asserting that the patent in suit did not claim patent eligible subject matter under 35 U.S.C. § 101. Judge Lynn found that the issue was more properly raised on a motion for summary judgment. As such, she indicated that she “will enter an order providing a schedule and details for such, to be filed and ruled upon, with limited and proportional discovery.”
As patent practitioners know, motions to dismiss based on allegedly ineligible subject matter have become more common in recent years, and the Supreme Court will provide further guidance on the inquiry in the presently pending Alice v. CLS Bank case.