Patent Law

Gift from the Dead

By Gary Odom and Jordan Kuhn

5,761,645 claims a "system for enabling delivery of insurance gift payments" to beneficiaries. Owner Equitable Life & Casualty Insurance has sued rival American National Insurance over it, as part of an ongoing enforcement campaign. Other insurance companies have been taken to task over '645, and settled. The patent is likely invalid, for mixing claim types (system and method), as well as its obviousness.

Full post as published by The Patent Prospector on July 04, 2009 (boomark / email).