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Section 101 as applied to a Computer-Implemented System and Method

07-09-2008 [Ben Hanrahan] [Permalink]

In Ex Parte Wasynczuk, No. 2008-1496, a patent applicant appealed a 35 U.S.C. 101 final rejection on two sets of claims, namely, claims directed to “a computer-implemented system” and a “computer-implemented method.”  In general, the invention relates to computer programs that simulate physical systems.

In particular, the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences (BPAI) found that although the computer-implemented method simply solves “purely mathematical representations of physical systems,” and that “the claimed simulating does not receive information from real world physical systems nor does it output data that controls a real world physical system,” it nevertheless qualifies as a Section 101 “process.”  Specifically because the method claim “recites that the first simulating step is performed on a ‘first physical computing device’ and the second simulating step is performed on ‘a second physical computing device’” the claim recites a “particular apparatus,” and thus “the method operates on another class of statutory subject matter such that the method is a patentable ‘process.’”

As for the system claims, the BPAI found that unlike the method claims, they lack any "particularly claimed combination of elements."  Specifically, the computer-implemented system comprises a first and second "executing process," each of which set forth a series of functions.  The sole structural limitation is the "computer-implemented system" recited in the preamble, and thus the BPAI concludes that the system claims are merely directed to an "abstract idea" rather than a patentable system.  (See Article here)

The entire BPAI decision can be found here.