Appeal No. 2000-0225
Application 08/677,543
OPINION
After careful consideration of the record before us, we will
not sustain the 35 U.S.C. § 101 rejection of claims 19 through
21.
In the reply brief, Appellants argue that the claims are
directed to a computer readable data storage medium on which is
encoded functional data, key storage information and an
enciphered signal. Appellants argue that this is clearly an
article of manufacture and it is of statutory subject matter.
Appellant argue that the Examiner has erred in characterizing the
claims as merely non-functional descriptive material.
The Examiner argues that the Appellants’ claimed invention
is non-functional descriptive matter which is non-statutory under
§ 101. The Examiner argues that the claims do not recite a data
structure or computer program, but only how the data is stored in
a recording area. See page 4 of the Examiner’s answer.
In In re Lowry, 32 F.3d 1579, 1583, 32 USPQ2d 1031, 1034-35
(Fed. Cir. 1994), our reviewing court held that a claim setting
forth a computer readable medium encoded with a data structure
defining structural and functional interrelationship between the
data structure and the media which permits the data structures
functionality to be realized is statutory. Furthermore, we note
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