Ryan Tyz Leads Client PlayerLync to Patent Litigation Win Under Alice

PlayerLync turned to litigation partner Ryan Tyz after competitor Multimedia Plus, Inc. filed claims in the Southern District of New York alleging that PlayerLync’s content management platform infringed its ‘025 patent, titled “Hosted Learning Management System and Method for Training Employees and Tracking Results of Same.”

Tyz filed and argued a motion for judgment on the pleadings on behalf of PlayerLync that the claims of the ‘025 patent were invalid under 35 U.S.C. 101 and the Supreme Court’s Alice v. CLS decision.  Tyz also sought and obtained a stay of all discovery while the motion was pending.

On July 29, 2016, United States District Court Judge William H. Paulsen III granted PlayerLync’s motion and dismissed Multimedia Plus’ lawsuit because the asserted claims of the ‘025 patent failed to claim patent-eligible subject matter.   Judge Paulsen wrote: “Once the generic, computing terminology is removed, it is clear that the ‘025 Patent claims are directed at the abstract idea of administering a test” and “the claims in the ‘025 Patent fail to transform the abstract idea of test administration into patent-eligible subject matter.” 

PlayerLync’s CTO and COO, Greg Menard, commented on the victory: “This is a great result for the company, and Ryan’s litigation skills and forward-thinking client-service got us here.  We take patent infringement allegations against our unique solution very seriously, and we are pleased with the Court’s decision in this case.” 

The full opinion is available here:  Order Granting Motion for Judgement on the Pleadings.