Appeal No. 1998-2848 Application 08/398,862 that is not part of a larger computer program. The "ETC corresponding to a disassociated computer code segment" in all of the independent claims is interpreted to mean that the ETC is a separate computer code segment, i.e., a code segment that is not part of a larger code segment. Because the claims do not recite that the computer program or the computer code segment is stored on a tangible medium, no medium is expressly or impliedly claimed. 35 U.S.C. � 101 The Examiner states (Paper No. 10, page 2): The claimed invention is directed to data structures representing descriptive material per se. This determination is based on the fact that Applicant has intentionally avoided claiming the mechanism or medium that is interrelated with the data structure; e.g.: "disassociated computer program"; "disassociated computer code segments." See M.P.E.P. 2106. Section 2106 of the Manual of Patent Examining Procedure (MPEP) reproduces the Patent and Trademark Office Examination Guidelines for Computer-Related Inventions (Guidelines), 1184 Off. Gaz. Pat. & Trademark Office 87 (March 26, 1996) .2 MPEP � 2106 incorporates the footnotes of the2 Guidelines into the body of the text and changes some wording, such as "non-functional" in the Guidelines to "nonfunctional." - 6 -Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 NextLast modified: November 3, 2007