Appeal 2007-0345
Application 09/812,417
Claims 1-4 and 6-8 Recite Non-Functional Descriptive Material
We also conclude that claims 1-4 and 6-8 merely recite non-functional
descriptive material. Significantly, nothing in claims 1-4 and 6-8 precludes
displaying and indicating purely textual or symbolic information without a
machine. In addition, nothing in the claims precludes the steps to be
performed solely by a person. In fact, the scope of claim 1 preempts a wide
variety of situations where a user simply selects items from a list and
indicates the selected items -- without a machine.
For example, claim 1 covers a conventional situation where a student
registers for courses to be offered (“future programs”) at a college or
university. In this example, a printed list of courses and schedules
corresponds to “providing future program information for a plurality of
future programs” as claimed.
During registration, the student can select a number of specified
options (“future program actions”) on a printed form regarding a specific
course including, among other things, taking the course for credit
(“recording” the future program in the student’s academic record), auditing
the course, and adding or dropping the course if the student has previously
registered for other courses.
The student can then submit this printed course selection to the
university (i.e., the university “receiv[es] the selected at least one future
program and the selected at least one future program action from the user”).
As a reminder, the student can also mark their printed course listing to
least some method steps on a machine (i.e., a monitor display screen). When
considered as a whole, claim 5 at least minimally recites statutory subject
matter under § 101.
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Last modified: September 9, 2013