Appeal No. 2001-2627
Application No. 09/472,658
signal embodied in a distributed computing system." We agree
with the Appellant that the claim is directed to the memory as
well as the wiring network of the computer system which provides
structural and functional interrelationship for the data signal
being claimed. Therefore, just as our reviewing court held in
Lowry, we find that the claim is directed to statutory subject
matter. Therefore, we will not sustain the Examiner's rejection
of claims 34 through 46 under 35 U.S.C.
§ 101 as being directed to non-statutory subject matter.
We now turn to claim 50, representing groups of claims 50
through 55. The Examiner has argued that claim 50 is directed to
nothing more than a writing of a contractual agreement and
thereby is not statutory subject matter.
Appellant argues that claim 50 is directed to an embodiment
of an incremental savings agreement. Appellant argues that claim
50 is directed to a practical application of an abstract idea and
should not be denied patent protection merely because the
abstraction is a legal idea rather than a scientific idea or a
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