Gallo Wins Dismissal of Patent Infringment Lawsuit

A federal district court granted summary judgment to E&j Gallo Winery in a case in which Vineyard Investigations alleged Gallo's experimental irrigation systems infringed its patents.

The court concluded that the asserted claims merely recited the abstract idea of controlling irrigation and material application using sensor and external data through generic computing components and therefore lacked the required inventive concept.

The patents related to automated crop-growing systems that combine data from plant-mounted sensors and external data, such as weather and evapotranspiration data to control irrigation and application of agricultural materials.

The court noted the specifications said any type of control system could be used, processing could be performed in any known manner and publicly available agricultural research could provide the rules for irrigation decisions – all reinforcing the idea the patents relied upon conventional technoology rather than any specific innovation.