If you weren't sure - arranging flowers is not patentable

A patent application claimed a method of creating a floral arrangement on an electronic display screen with the following representative claim:

A method of creating a floral arrangement on an electronic display screen, the method comprising:

selecting a flower from an image library comprising a plurality of images for the flower, the plurality of images including images of the flower from different angular positions;

placing the flower at a user-selected location in a floral arrangement that is displayed on an electronic display screen;

dynamically selecting one of the plurality of images of the flower based on the location of the flower in the floral arrangement; and

displaying the selected flower image in the floral arrangement displayed on the display screen.

After the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) rejected the application, the patent applicant appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

The Federal Circuit affirmed finding that the claim was directed to mental processes, the abstract idea of managing personal behavior and methods of organizing human activity – in this case, arranging flowers (In re Sturgeon, 839 F. App'x 517, 520 (Fed. Cir. 2021)).

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