Foley secured a win on behalf of Kickstarter, Inc. before the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York today, where Judge Failla granted summary judgment, invalidating the Defendants—Fan Funded, LLC and ArtistShare, Inc.—U.S. Patent No. 7,885, 887 (the “887 patent”).
Kickstarter, the world’s largest funding platform for creative projects, filed its complaint in September 2011 in response to allegations by the defendants that its platform infringed the ‘887 patent, which purported to claim methods and apparatuses for financing and marketing a creative work. Kickstarter sought declarations that the ‘887 patent is invalid and that Kickstarter did not infringe the patent. Earlier the Court agreed with Kickstarter on what the patent covers, forcing ArtistShare to concede that it could not prevail on its infringement claims. Kickstarter proceeded on its request for a declaration of invalidity, over the Defendants’ objections. On June 29, Judge Failla issued a 30 page order, granting Kickstarter summary judgment that the claims of the ‘887 patent are invalid as being directed to patent-ineligible subject matter under Section 101.
The Foley team included Matthew B. Lowrie, Matthew A. Ambros, and Ellen T. Wong.
