Weisner v. Google LLC
- Alvin Hellerstein
- 1:20-cv-02862
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 2
In Weisner v. Google LLC, Judge Hellerstein denied Google’s motion to dismiss patent claims, without prejudice, and set deadlines for an answer and conference.
The ruling affects the plaintiffs’ patent claims against Google LLC by allowing the claims at this stage; Google may renew its dismissal motion later. The opinion does not explain Shmuel Nemanov’s role beyond identifying him as an involuntary party.
What happened
In Weisner v. Google LLC, Google asked the court to dismiss claims involving the plaintiffs’ ’839, ’667, and ’068 patents. Google argued those claims were substantially the same as claims in the ’202 patent and had the same problems.
The court said it could not yet determine whether the ’839, ’667, and ’068 patent claims differed materially from claims in the ’905 and ’911 patents. The court accepted the amended complaint’s plausible allegations as true at this stage. It also discussed an earlier appeals-court ruling that found the allegations included an inventive concept involving searches prioritized by visits to a location.
Judge Alvin Hellerstein denied the motion to dismiss, without prejudice to renewal later in the case. Google must file its answer by September 3, 2024, and the parties must attend a September 26, 2024 status conference to plan a hearing about how the patent claims should be interpreted.
The detailed version
- Weisner v. Google LLC · No. 1:20-cv-02862
- Alvin Hellerstein
- Aug. 13, 2024
Background
The caption identifies Sholem Weisner as plaintiff, Google LLC as defendant, and Shmuel Nemanov as an involuntary party. The opinion refers to the plaintiffs’ claims involving the ’839, ’667, and ’068 patents. Google moved to dismiss those claims.
Court’s analysis
The court stated that Google had shown the claims of the ’839, ’667, and ’068 patents were substantially the same as the claims of the ’202 patent and subject to the same infirmities. But at the motion-to-dismiss stage, the court accepted all plausible allegations as true and drew inferences in favor of the amended complaint. On that basis, it could not determine whether the ’839, ’667, and ’068 claims differed materially from claims in the ’905 and ’911 patents.
The court also relied on an earlier Court of Appeals ruling concerning the ’905 and ’911 patents. That court had reversed an earlier dismissal and held that, despite the abstract nature of the patent claims, the plaintiffs had sufficiently alleged an “inventive concept” under the second part of the test from Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank International. The identified concept prioritized searches based on visits to a location and overrode the routine sequence ordinarily triggered by clicking a hyperlink.
Ruling and next steps
The court denied Google’s motion to dismiss, without prejudice to renewal at a later and appropriate stage of the litigation. The court ordered Google to file its answer by September 3, 2024. It also ordered the parties to attend a status conference on September 26, 2024, to plan for a hearing concerning interpretation of the patent claims. The Clerk was directed to terminate Electronic Court Filing entry No. 25.
Read the full 2-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.