Q Technologies, Inc. v. Walmart, Inc. - Argued on 01/12/2026; Appeal No: 24-1667

Case Summary:Q Technologies, Inc., a technology company that owns patents covering methods of sharing digital content using unique identifiers, sued Walmart, Inc. in the Western District of Texas for patent infringement based on patents including U.S. Patent Nos. 9,635,108, 10,567,473, and 10,594,774. Walmart moved for summary judgment, arguing that the asserted claims were invalid under 35 U.S.C. § 101, and the district court, applying the Alice framework, agreed that the claims were directed to the abstract idea of organizing and retrieving information by identifiers and lacked any inventive concept beyond routine computer implementation. After a final pretrial conference, the court orally granted Walmart’s motion, later issuing a written opinion that invalidated all asserted claims as patent-ineligible, entered summary judgment for Walmart, and effectively ended the district court case. Q Technologies then appealed that judgment to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, where the case is docketed as No. 24-1667 and oral argument audio has been made available under the title Q Technologies, Inc. v. Walmart, Inc.