Supreme Court Rejects Web-Conference Patent Case Against Google

The US Supreme Court has decided not to take up a patent dispute involving Google and inventor Jeff Kohler. On Monday, the high court declined to hear Kohler’s challenge to a lower court’s decision that invalidated his web-conference patent.

Kohler’s company, which shares the name of his patent (US Patent No. 7,679,637), had accused Google of infringement. A federal court in Washington state sided with Google, ruling that the patent was too abstract to qualify for protection under Section 101 of the Patent Act. This decision was later upheld by the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

Kohler appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing that the lower courts had misapplied legal standards. However, the Supreme Court’s refusal to hear the case effectively ends his legal challenge, leaving the lower court’s ruling intact.