Appeal Number: 2007-0133
Application Number: 10/223,466
Claims 1, 5 through 15, 35 and 37 are drawn to methods of drawing a chart.
The end result of these claims is just that, a chart. There is no functional
relationship between the drawings on the chart and the underlying substrate upon
which the chart is drawn. Nothing in the claim limits the claimed subject matter to
data describing actual measurements2 of real world data.
The chart is no more than an abstract representation of the ideas behind the
drawing contents. This is no more directed toward a concrete, tangible and useful
result than was the gray scale in Abele. See In re Abele, 684 F.2d 902, 909, 214
USPQ 682, 685 (CCPA 1982) (where the claim presented “no more than the
calculation of a number and display of the result, albeit in a particular format.”)
On the other hand, claims 2 through 4, 16 through 34, 36 and 38 through 40 are
drawn to methods and apparatus of changing a chart by use of moving parts, which
use the functional relationship between the movable parts of the chart and the
underlying substrate to alter the presentation. Therefore, these claims are drawn to
more than the mere abstract ideas identified by the chart’s contents. The
specification teaches how the moveable parts are to be manipulated to determine
accumulated sleep debt, which is useful to determining how much sleep is needed.
Accordingly we sustain the examiner's rejection of claims 1, 5 through 15, 35
and 37, and do not sustain the examiner's rejection of claims 2 through 4, 16
through 34, 36 and 38 through 40 under 35 U.S.C. § 101 as directed to non-
statutory subject matter.
2 Although the claims refer to “representing personal” data, the elements are just
that, representations of such data, not measurements of actual personal data. The
specification at 5 discloses that “[t]hese instructions assume a normal sleep-wake
cycle … .”
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