Appeal No. 2006-2228
Application No. 10/231,678
practical application by producing a "useful, concrete, and tangible
result." This citation to State Street Bank confuses the issue of
patentability under 35 U.S.C. § 101 with respect to the pending
independent claims. (emphasis added)
B. DISCUSSION
Appellant has admitted that in claims 35, 37, and 38, the “computer-
readable signal bearing media” includes “intangible embodiments (wireless
transmissions).” On its face, this in turn includes “carrier waves” or
“propagated signals” which are not statutory subject matter. A case involving
this issue is presently on appeal to the Federal Circuit: In re Nuijten, No. 06-
1301.
A man-made signal represents coded information. A signal can be an
abstract quantity describing the information or a measurable physical quantity
(e.g., the fluctuations of an electrical quantity, such as voltage) containing
information. See In re Walter, 618 F.2d 758, 770, 205 USPQ 397, 409 (CCPA
1980) ("The 'signals' processed by the inventions of claims 10-12 may represent
either physical quantities or abstract quantities; the claims do not require one or
the other"). Here we interpret the “computer-readable signal bearing media” of
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