Appeal No. 2000-2080
Application 09/287,226
answer2 for the respective details thereof.
OPINION
After a careful consideration of the record before us, we
will sustain the rejection of claims 2-3 under 35 U.S.C. § 101.
The Federal Circuit in State Street Bank v. Signature
Financial, 149 F.3d 1368, 47 USPQ2d 1596 (Fed. Cir. 1998), first
identified the three categories of subject matter that are not
patentable--laws of nature, natural phenomena and abstract ideas.
The opinion went on to note "the mathematical algorithm is
unpatentable only to the extent that it represents an abstract
idea" and is thus not "useful." Id. 149 F.3d at 1373 n.4,
47 USPQ2d at 1600-01 n.4. Later in its opinion, the court
returned to this issue:
[T]he mere fact that a claimed invention involves inputting
numbers, calculating numbers, outputting numbers, and
storing numbers, in and of itself, would not render it
nonstatutory subject matter, unless, of course, its
operation does not produce a 'useful, concrete and tangible
result.'
2 The Examiner responded to the brief with an Examiner's
answer, mailed May 9, 2000.
3
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