Appeal No. 1997-1339
Application 08/086,825
OPINION
We reverse the rejection of claims 17 through 31 under 35 U.S.C. § 101.
Respective independent method claim 17 and apparatus claim 31 recite essentially
the same subject matter. Representative method claim 17 in its preamble sets forth a
"method for producing a circular color distribution on a recording medium." Data with
respect to certain picture elements are stored and then certain operations, including
mathematical operations, are set forth in the body of the claim with respect to these picture
elements or pixels. These include determining a center-to-center spacing of a center of a
picture element on a recording medium. Other operations with respect to these picture
elements are set forth in the other steps and clauses of the claims on appeal. Finally, the
determined color values are employed "for point-by-point and
line-by-line recording of the circular color distribution on the recording medium."
It is thus apparent that independent claims 17 and 31 do not per se recite
mathematical operations alone as a whole. It is permitted to utilize or set forth
mathematical relationships in claims directed to processes and machines. Here the
operations are upon pixels and their placement on a recording medium, which is clearly a
practical application.
The examiner's reasoning in part was based upon the so-called Freeman-Walter-
Abele test. However, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit recently indicated in
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