A Section 101 Election Day Throwback – Voting as a Fundamental Activity

In 2018, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit assessed Patent RE40,449, titled "Auto-Verifying Voting System and Voting Method."

An exemplary claim is below:

A method for voting providing for self-verification of a ballot comprising the steps of:

(a) voting by a voter using a computer voting station programmed to present an election ballot,

accept input of votes from the voter according to the election ballot,

temporarily store the votes of the voter;

(b) printing of the votes of the voter from the votes temporarily stored in the computer for the voting station;

(c) comparison by the voter of the printed votes with the votes temporarily stored in the computer for the voting station;

(d) decision by the voter as to whether a printed ballot is acceptable or unacceptable; and

(e) submission of an acceptable printed ballot for tabulation.

Voter Verified argued that its asserted claims were directed to patent-eligible subject matter because "the specification and claims describe physical and human cognitive actions, which are not abstract ideas."

The defendant, in response, argued that the claims were directed to the abstract idea of "voting and checking the accuracy of a paper election ballot" and this represents only "a well-established human activity." The defendant further argued that the patent disclosed only general purpose computers to automate a fundamental human activity, namely verifying votes.

The Federal Circuit agreed: "The claims as a whole are drawn to the concept of voting, verifying the vote, and submitting the vote for tabulation." The court further found that humans have performed "this fundamental activity that forms the basis of our democracy for hundreds of years."

At Step Two, the court found no inventive concept because the standard components performing this "fundamental activity" were not enough to transform the claims into patent-eligible subject matter. The court affirmed the dismissal of the complaint under Rule 12(b)(6).

The case citation is 887 F.3d 1376 (Fed. Cir. 2018).

As always, thank you for reading – and don't forget to perform this fundamental activity!