Dental Monitoring SAS v. Align Technology, Inc., No. 24-2270 (Fed. Cir. July 7, 2026)

Editorial Summary

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Dental Monitoring appealed from the Northern District of California's summary judgment (Alsup, J.) that claims 1 and 14 of U.S. Patent 11,049,248 and claims 1, 7, and 12 of U.S. Patent 10,755,409 — directed to methods of monitoring the positioning of a patient's teeth using images acquired with a mobile device — are directed to ineligible subject matter under 35 U.S.C. § 101. The Federal Circuit agreed that the claims were directed to an abstract idea and lacked an inventive concept sufficient to transform them into patent-eligible applications, and affirmed the judgment of invalidity.