Case: 23-1101

Document: 15

Page: 248

Filed: 05/09/2023

PUBLIC VERSION

These claims are expressly directed to technical improvements to then-existing
technology, namely those associated with electronically programmable thermostats and other
HVAC controls. See Alice, 573 U.S. at 217 (claims patent-eligible as a matter of law if “they
improve an existing technological process”). Therefore, the administrative law judge finds that
the asserted claims are patent-eligible as a matter of law. Id.
Moreover, the specification provides further evidence that this claimed system and
method is a significant departure and improvement over the existing electronic thermostat and
HVAC control system. For example, “conventional” electronic thermostats and other HVAC
controls had “no mechanism by which it might take the thermal mass of the structure into
account, but thermal mass significantly affects many parameters relating to energy efficiency.”
JX-0001 (’497 patent) & JX-0002 (‘322 patent) at col. 3, lns. 1-4; col. 2, lns. 52-67. The claims
of the ’322 and ’497 patents purport to overcome the limitations in the conventional electronic
thermostat HVAC control system at the time. For instance, the inventions use a networked
thermostat HVAC control system to “measure[] temperature” in a building and “reporting said
temperature measurements as well as the status of an HVAC control system over the Internet.”
Id. at col. 3, ln. 62 – col. 4, ln. 14, col. 6, lns. 14-59, Fig. 1.
The administrative law judge thus finds that respondents have not shown that the asserted
claims of the of the ’497 and ’322 patents are directed to an abstract idea, devoid of a concrete or
tangible application.
b.

Alice Step Two

Respondents argue, in part:
None of the claims of either the ’497 or ’322 patent provide any inventive
concept under step two of Alice. As EcoFactor’s own experts and the named
inventor admit, the claimed components of the asserted claims of the ’497 and ’322
423

Appx1919

