Appeal No. 2003-1751
Application No. 09/179,357
the claims on appeal. Details of the appealed subject matter are
provided in illustrative claim 1, which is reproduced below:
1. A device for providing ultrasonic therapy to a breast of
a patient, comprising:
a container filled with at least one liquid for receiving a
breast of a patient;
an acoustically transmitting fixing membrane disposed in
said container for mechanically fixing the breast of the
patient; and
an ultrasonic transducer associated with said container,
said ultrasonic transducer emitting sound waves having a
principal emission direction forming with a plane of a body
of the patient an angle of less than or equal to 50o, said
emission direction to be altered for setting the focus of
said sound waves to any tissue region within the breast of
the patient.
Claims 1 and 3 through 9 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C.
§ 101 as being directed to non-statutory subject matter.
We reverse.
The examiner asserts (Answer, page 2):
The claimed invention is defined in terms of the body
of a patient and therefore inferentially includes the
patient as part of the claimed invention. The
inclusion of a patient in the claimed invention renders
the claimed subject matter non-statutory.
We concur with the examiner to the extent that a human cannot be
either directly or indirectly claimed as part of an invention.
However, in this case, we find nothing in the claims on appeal or
the specification which indicates that a human part or a human is
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