Appeal 2007-1341
Application 09/894,065
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 medium" of claim 21 to include a time varying
electromagnetic radiation signal instead of just an abstract quantity, such as
a data format.
The "computer readable medium" of claim 21 is considered to be
nonstatutory subject matter because a "carrier wave" or a "propagated
signal" does not fall within one of the four statutory categories of subject
matter under 35 U.S.C. § 101.
The categories of statutory subject matter are "process, machine,
manufacture, or composition of matter." 35 U.S.C. § 101. "[N]o patent is
available for a discovery, however useful, novel, and nonobvious, unless it
falls within one of the express categories of patentable subject matter of
35 U.S.C. § 101." Kewanee Oil Co. v. Bicron Corp., 416 U.S. 470, 483,
181 USPQ 673, 679 (1974).
A "process" is a series of acts and, since claim 21 does not recite
acts, it is not a process. Compare the method for grouping based on
attributes in claims 1, 3-8, and 28, which are not rejected under
35 U.S.C. § 101.
The three product classes of machine, manufacture, and composition
of matter have traditionally required physical structure or substance. "The
term machine includes every mechanical device or combination of
mechanical powers and devices to perform some function and produce a
certain effect or result." Corning v. Burden, 56 U.S. 252, 267 (1854); see
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