Federal Circuit Dockets Appeal in Tedesco v. Spoonflower After Section 101 Dismissal of Fabric Procedure Map Patents.

The appeal

Sharon Tedesco and Marc Tedesco v. Spoonflower, Inc. and Shutterfly LLC, No. 1:23-cv-01030 (M.D.N.C.), is a patent infringement suit filed November 28, 2023. The district court docket shows a memorandum opinion and order and a judgment entered September 30, 2026 (ECF Nos. 35 and 36) and a notice of appeal entered October 29, 2026 (ECF No. 37). The Federal Circuit docketed the appeal on November 4, 2026 as No. 27-1104.

The patents

U.S. Patent 7,310,885, issued December 25, 2007, and U.S. Patent 7,409,769, issued August 12, 2008, are both titled "Fabric Having a Procedure Map" and both name Sharon E. Tedesco and Marc S. Tedesco as inventors. The '769 patent issued from a continuation of the application that became the '885 patent. The court's opinion recounts that the complaint pointed to claim 24 of the '885 patent, which describes the invention as "[a] fabric which has a procedure map thereon, the procedure map comprising at least one set of machine-made markings . . . ," and to claims 6, 9, 14, and 20 of the '769 patent, which the court said describe the invention as a "fabric having a procedure map thereon . . . ." Claims 6 and 9 of the '769 patent claim the fabric; claims 14 and 20 claim a method that begins by providing such a fabric.

The rulings

On September 26, 2025, Senior United States District Judge David A. Faber granted the defendants' Rule 12(b)(6) motion to dismiss (ECF No. 24). Applying the Alice framework, the court held that the invention "is directed at the abstract idea of marking fabrics to identify fabric characteristics," that the patents "describe the abstract concept and essentially say 'apply it' using a non-descript machine," and that "the asserted claims are patent ineligible subject matter." On October 31, 2025, the court gave the plaintiffs until November 24, 2025 to move to amend the complaint (ECF No. 26). On September 30, 2026, Judge Faber denied the plaintiffs' motion for leave to file an amended complaint (ECF No. 35), holding that the new allegations about an inventive concept were conclusory and that "the proposed amended complaint is futile as it too fails under the Alice framework."

What to watch next

Watch for the opening brief and any motion practice in the Federal Circuit. The appeal can end at any time, including by voluntary dismissal.