Synopsys, Inc. v. Siemens Industry Software Inc.

INTRODUCTION

14 Defendant Avatar Integrated Systems, Inc., (“Avatar”) moves to dismiss three of six patent 15 infringement claims brought by plaintiff Synopsys, Inc. (“Synopsys”), arguing that three of the 16 asserted patents are directed to abstract mental processes or mathematics and therefore fail to 17 claim patent-eligible subject matter under 35 U.S.C. § 101. As discussed below, I conclude that 18 the ’863 and ’640 patents are directed to patent-ineligible abstract ideas, do not contain any 19 inventive concepts, and are therefore invalid under § 101. In contrast, construing all facts in favor 20 of Synopsys at the motion to dismiss stage, I conclude that the ’655 patent is directed to a specific 21 method for checking engineering change orders across multiple scenarios during the process of 22 fixing design requirement violations, which improves the efficient use of computers running chip 23 design software, and is therefore not invalid under § 101. In line with these conclusions, Avatar’s 24 motion to dismiss is GRANTED as to Claims I and II and DENIED as to Claim VI.

BACKGROUND

26 Avatar seeks to dismiss claims related to U.S. Patent Nos. 7,103,863 (“the ’863…