US Supreme Court rejects Eolas patent case against Amazon, Google

Oct 7 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a patent holding company's challenge to a decision invalidating an early-internet patent that Amazon (AMZN.O), Google (GOOGL.O) and Walmart (WMT.N) were accused of infringing.

The high court's decision leaves in place a lower court's ruling that Eolas Technologies' invention for improved web browsing was not eligible to be patented because it covered abstract ideas.

A Walmart spokesperson said that the company was pleased with the decision. Spokespeople and attorneys for Eolas, Amazon and Google did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Eolas had asked the Supreme Court to reconsider the contentious issue of patent eligibility for the first time since its 2014 decision in Alice Corp v. CLS Bank International, which helped establish a two-part eligibility test.

The test requires courts to determine whether an invention involves an unpatentable abstract idea, natural phenomenon or law of nature - and if so, whether it includes an inventive concept.

Critics say the standard has created confusion about what inventions can be legally protected and led to the cancellation of valid patents in many fields, including computer science. The Supreme Court has rejected several requests to reconsider the Alice test.

Eolas sued Amazon, Google and Walmart in 2015 over their websites. A California federal court said in 2022 that Eolas' patent was invalid, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed the decision in February, determining that the patent was directed to the abstract concept of "interacting with data objects on the World Wide Web."

Eolas told the Supreme Court in May that the Federal Circuit ruling "defies Alice and threatens all patents drawn to improving what has become highly useful and important computer network technology."

Amazon responded that Eolas had sued "scores of internet companies" for over 30 years over patents related to "generic computers performing generic functions."

The case is Eolas Technologies Inc v. Amazon.com Inc, U.S. Supreme Court, No. 23-1184.