Posts Tagged: "Computers"

Software Patent-Eligible Subject Matter: Claiming Improvements in Computer Functionality

Particularize the claims.  This helps overcome the “abstract” part of a 101 rejection. Put details into the claims to define the steps performed in the software and hardware to a granular degree.  Don’t claim a result; claim the steps performed in accomplishing the result. That is, define the software computer program and hardware in discrete steps. Define what’s going on in each step of the computer program code. Go to the level of a software design engineer that annotates their code, to inform others as to what’s going on in the code.  If there is an algorithm claimed, particularize the claims to include the steps performed in implementing the algorithm.

Computer history, nothing abstract to be found

Computers, processors, memories and transmission equipment are devices or machines. All these machines, as configured systems, have a documented history of addressing concrete technical problems that were difficult to overcome.  Ultimately, computing machines are characterized by what they do, or by their architecture. This article illustrates some of the historical issues in developing programmed and programmable machines.

Executable mathematics renders inventions physical! Welcome to the digital age

The use of a mathematical formula in a claim can trigger a 35 USC 101 rejection or invalidation of the patented claim. However, the role of mathematics in physics and in inventions has changed dramatically over the last 50 years. Computers are programmed to operate on the numbers to perform a defined task, such as filtering or demodulation, by performing calculations in a certain order and at a certain speed. Cellphones, DVD players, telephone sets, 3D printers, cameras, MRI machines and the like are in essence computers with an A/D and D/A converter and/or transducers.

Programmed computers are switching machines, and not directed to an abstract idea

A computer is a machine, yet there is an ongoing trend to “anthropomorphize” computers. That is: functions that are performed by humans are said to be able to be performed by computers. Anyone who has done any serious programming knows that is not how it works. Let me explain. Steps that humans can do almost mindlessly, for instance changing paragraph numbers in a text, may be excruciatingly difficult as programming steps. That is because computers are machines that process signals that follow very strict and inflexible routines that have no concept of what the signals mean.

IBM, Microsoft and Alphabet working towards the dawn of quantum computing

Unlike classical computing, which relies on bits that take on values of either 1 or 0 in order to process information, quantum computing relies on qubits. Qubits can take the distinguishable 1 or 0 value, but unlike classical bits, there are aspects of quantum mechanics, which make qubits much more useful in certain applications. One unique element of qubits are their ability to take on a superposition, meaning that a single qubit can be in multiple states at a single moment in the same way that a light can behave as a wave or a particle at the molecular level. Entanglement, or the state in which two qubits can be inextricably linked even when separated by great distances, is another effect of quantum mechanics which has implications for computing. Superposition and entanglement would allow a quantum computer to rapidly perform calculations which could never be completed by a classical computer, such as finding the factors of a number with more than 500 digits, unlocking a new world in data encryption and analysis.