IBM's Patent Battle With Zillow: Mapping Out The Limits Of Eligible Subject Matter

• Jurisdiction: United States,Federal
• Law Firm: NovoTechIP
• Subject Matter: Intellectual Property, Patent
• Author: NovoTechIP &nbsp
• Published date: 13 March 2023

Executive Summary

IBM owns a patent ("'789 patent") for a method of selecting an area on a map by drawing a shape and limiting the displayed information to the selected area of the map. IBM also owns a patent ("'389 patent") for methods of displaying layered data on a spatially-oriented display based on nonspatial attributes and emphasizing objects in layers of interest by bringing them to the top of the display while deemphasizing other layers. In 2019, IBM filed a patent infringement suit against Zillow, claiming infringement of its patents. Zillow responded by asserting that the claims of IBM's patents were not eligible subject matter under $ 101. The Court agreed with Zillow (citation provided in Detailed Discussion below).

The Court noted that the '789 patent is result-oriented, describing functions such as presenting, receiving, selecting and synchronizing without explaining how to accomplish them. It is written in "result-based functional language" that does not describe how to achieve the results in a non-abstract way. The specification also does not disclose any technical improvements or suggest one that was achieved, resulting in the conclusion that the '789 patent is directed to an ineligible abstract idea. Similarly, the Court noted that the '389 patent's purely functional steps'of organizing information based on color, lines, or other patterns, and then layering and re-layering said information'do not describe how these functions are performed and could be done using paper and ink and have long been done by cartographers.

Detailed Discussion

Applying the Supreme Court's Alice decision, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit determined that claims related to graphical displays and user interfaces were not eligible subject matter as they amounted to abstract ideas. IBM v. Zillow Group, Inc., Case No. 21-2350 (Fed. Cir. Oct. 13, 2022) (Reyna, Hughes, Stoll, JJ.) (Stoll, J., dissenting in part).

IBM owns U.S. Patent No. 9,158,789 ("the '789 patent"), which describes a method for selecting an area on a map by drawing a shape and filtering the displayed data to that area of the map. The system then synchronizes which elements on the map and its associated list are shown as "selected." Representative claim 8 recites:

8. A method for coordinated geospatial and list-based mapping, the operations comprising:
presenting a map display on a display device, wherein the map display comprises elements within a viewing area of the map display, wherein the elements comprise geospatial characteristics, wherein the elements comprise selected and unselected elements;
presenting a list display on the display device, wherein the list display comprises a customizable list comprising the elements from the map display;
receiving a user input drawing a selection area in the viewing area of the map display, wherein the selection area is a user determined shape, wherein the selection area is smaller than the viewing area of the map display, wherein the viewing area comprises elements that are visible within the map display and are outside the selection area;
selecting any unselected elements within the selection area in response to the user input drawing the selection area and deselecting any selected elements outside the selection area in response to the user input drawing the selection area; and
synchronizing the map display and the list display to concurrently update the selection and deselection of the elements according to the user input, the selection and deselection occurring on both the map display and the list display.

FIG. 5 illustrates an embodiment of claim 8.

IBM also owns U.S. Patent No. 7,187,389 ("the '389 patent"), which describes methods of displaying layered data on a spatially-oriented display based on nonspatial attributes, and emphasizes objects in layers of interest by bringing them to the top of the display while deemphasizing other layers. Representative claim 1 recites:

1. A method of displaying layered data, said method comprising:
selecting one or more objects to be displayed in a plurality of layers;
identifying a plurality of non-spatially distinguishable display attributes, wherein one or more of the non-spatially...