Following the Supreme Court’s Alice Corp. Pty. v. CLS Bank Int’l decision in 2014, patent eligibility under Section 101 of the Patent Act has been increasingly invoked in early motion practice. In Hantz Software, LLC v. Sage Intacct, Inc., however, the Federal Circuit made a ruling that should give parties pause before moving, particularly in cases where the operative pleading only contains a subset of patent claims. 

In the Hantz case, Hantz Software LLC (Hantz) sued Sage Intacct Inc. (Sage) in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleging that Sage infringed two of its patents. Sage moved to dismiss the complaint under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6), arguing that the complaint asserted patent-ineligible claims under 35 U.S.C. § 101. The district court agreed with Sage and held that the asserted patents were ineligible. Hantz appealed.