Appeal No. 1999-2314
Application 08/739,200
Appellants argue that the Freeman-Walter-Abele test is
not the proper test to determine whether computer-related
inventions are statutory subject matter, citing State Street Bank
& Trust Co. v. Signature Financial Group, Inc., 149 F.3d 1368,
1374 (Fed. Cir. 1998), 525 U.S. 1093 (1999), cert denied.
Appellants argue that the claimed invention is patentable as long
as it is not a disembodied abstract idea. According to
appellants, the only relevant and dispositive inquiry is whether
the claimed invention is directed to something useful, that is,
have practical utility. Appellants argue that the claimed
invention clearly has practical utility because it uses and
manipulates empirical data taken from the real world. Appellants
also argue that the claims are directed to a data structure
stored on a computer-readable medium which imposes a physical
organization on the information which forms an electronic
structure which is not an abstraction [brief, pages 15-32].
The examiner responds that the facts of this case are
similar to the facts of In re Warmerdam, 33 F.3d 1354, 31 USPQ2d
1754 (Fed. Cir. 1994), and that Warmerdam is consistent with the
decision in State Street. The examiner finds that the claimed
invention is nothing more than a data structure. According to
the examiner, a “belief network” is nonstatutory regardless of
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