Longitude Licensing Limited v. Google, LLC

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

LONGITUDE LICENSING LIMITED, Case No. 23-cv-03046-VC

Plaintiff,

ORDER GRANTING MOTION TO

v. DISMISS

GOOGLE, LLC, Re: Dkt. No. 32 Defendant.

The motion to dismiss is granted because the claims in the ’365, ’574, ’056, and ’109 patents are directed to ineligible subject matter. 35 U.S.C. § 101. This ruling assumes that the reader is familiar with the facts, the applicable legal standards, and the arguments made by the parties. These patents are drawn to an abstract idea: the idea of improving image quality by adjusting various aspects of an image based on features of the main object in the image. “The category of abstract ideas includes “fundamental, long prevalent practices.” Bluebonnet Internet Media Services, LLC v. Pandora Media, LLC, No. 21-cv-08294-VC, 2022 WL 4093168, *1 (N.D. Cal. Sept. 7, 2022) (citing BSG Tech LLC v. BuySeasons, Inc., 899 F.3d 1281, 1286 (Fed. Cir. 2018)). As Google points out, that basic concept is longstanding. The variations among the patent claims are merely various abstract ideas for how to enhance an image (for example, determining the…