claim not directed at an abstract idea but rather the very specific process of providing webmasters with access to an existing merchant affiliate system with ever having to join that  either alone or in combination with one another the theme of the jest the heart of the patent is it provides access web masters have access to multiple merchant affiliates systems and never have to join step is to look at the clients and find out what are they directed at what's the purpose of the patent the purpose of this patent is to provide access for that's looking at the limitations claim limitations yes you're on looking at the claim limitations so it's not the would find is the same and in this case the gist of the patent for the purpose of the claims with the claim to directed at is access it's not the abstract idea of tracking and receiving over furled rather the merchant has always been capable of tracking and receiving referrals and even after the invention is implemented the merchant will continue to track and receive referrals in the same way it always has the only difference is that now webmaster's have access to multiple merchant affiliate systems whereas before in order to gain that access the webmasters had to join each and every system and adopt unique coding systems from every single merchant the merchant similarly have access to a huge pool of webmasters and the merchants need not provide code so all these web masters the web masters come ready to access the system through the virtual filesystem the six sixty patent adds an inventive concept on the preexisting technology on the prior art specifically the patent requires that there are three specialized computer systems to existed before their presence in technology the third is added by the invention and not until those three specialized computers merchants of assigning a specialized coding system of tracking accounting for revenue making payouts why couldn't you write it on your lap that if you had the right software you are suppose that any specialized computer could run any special i system could right you can call the specialist computer if you're just talking about a computer that's programmed to do a certain thing the supreme court's made that really clear well your honor for example a g p s system is found to be specialized but s is in every device it's on common everyday computers it's on cell phones but it's considered specialized because the software that underlies it and here that merchant affiliates in the existing system existing merchant affiliate system i don't believe my laptop is powerful enough certainly isn't programmed to assign codes to multiple webmasters what i mean you can't be arguing that a computer is a special purpose computer are not opening up its capacity invention by programming a computer you don't get patentable no less program itself that some kind of technological innovation so how does your program improve the general purpose computer improve  you know it's running existing rich an affiliate system is only capable of accepting requests from web masters to sign up with the system who adopt the coding system of the existing merchant affiliate system with the invention is that an internet center problem it is your honor because affiliate systems never existed before the internet if it's a soon as you need to the internet it allows for a webmaster to provide referrals to merchants and it's broker it's an access point it's not a broker because it's not offering the services of the merchant but rather provides technology that allows a webmaster to gain access to the merchant affiliate system without ever having to join before the sixty patent the way of affiliate systems was every webmaster had to join multiple merchant affiliate systems and there are two kinds there is a direct in the hub so messrs had to join several direct several hub and each had its own coding system so the webmaster was burdened with signing up in multiple systems and adopting multiple codes and programming it system to work with every single one of the call the traffic light it allows for a portal that never existed in the past a webmaster had to join multiple systems and merchants had to track multiple lead masters whereas with the sixty what happens now well your honor if the patent sat provide a portal and apply it to the internet that would be an abstract idea and that's what you should but your honor this patent is specific and has four steps that weren't web masters in the merchants were limited to that coding system but now with step one patent so when somebody goes to a certain web page and clicks on a link to a merchant that webmaster gets credit somehow for that clip and make it even more receiving referrals that system remains the only difference is that now the webmaster is receiving many more referrals from webmasters and never signed up with it it doesn't have to market it doesn't have to will see it as may merely apply that idea to the preexisting technological environment of the internet with its preexisting affiliate systems which he so see its patent at mit's were commonplace on the internet isso c it may have moved some of the record keeping to a merchant middleman if you think that preexisting affiliate system is noble no it's just a computer that's been programmed to run a merchant affiliate program and not only  but it is a conventional part of the internet the patent tells us that most merchants currently use some sort of affiliate system to run their affiliate program and merely taking that conventional and craigslist in part of the internet and using it in the claims does not suffice to transform the nature of the claim to something that's not abstract so cure we've got an intermediary performing the electronic record keeping that's not an invent concepts of fission to transform the abstract idea to a patent eligible invention and merely reorganizing the economic relationship so that the webmaster instead of contracting directly with the merchant instead contracts with the middleman is merely a method of reorganizing human relationships which under alice is not patentable additionally the patent really isn't directed to the idea of access the patent talks about receiving the referrals and the end result of the patent claim claim one which is representative is the generation of the u r l which is just a string of characters the claim doesn't talk about what happens with that u r l after it's generated additionally webmasters were already able to access the merchant you could always put a u r l hyperlink on a web page and be able to link to amazon dot com or target dot com or what have you the issue was one of tracking for purposes of compensation that's electronic record keeping which as we know from house is not sufficient to transform the nature of the clay so let's go through the the steps of the clay we start with the preamble which merely identifies the referring webmasters those are the virtual the configuring step merely configures the existing system the existing affiliate system to do what affiliate systems do and that's receiving referrals the substance of assigning i d s again that's just part of conventional electronic record keeping on the internet the patent not only does that just make common sense but the patent tells us that unique id numbers would have been apparent to those of skill in the art that's a c here we're just talking about the assignment of id numbers for electronic record keeping this the next stuff the receiving that's just using the internet for its conventional communication function and it's conventional l that's how the internet works that's the preexisting technological environment the next step is correlating again this is monday recordkeeping like the dating of the activity log in the ultimate chill case the specification talks about the lookup table across references to codes and then finally the generating stuff this just uses conventional internet communication its its communication function the priority example already shows that your else was to convey i think oh and once we've been through the steps of the claim there's there's nothing left in the claim that would be sufficient to transform its nature into something that happened eligible and with that i will reserve the meantime for my co counsel us the panel has any questions  middleman really the system that takes over the bookkeeping from the merchant so that they can do it all in this ease so see it's computer instead of on the merchants computer in terms of the improved our specialized computer i think the supreme court's been clear that when you program a general purpose computer to do normal general purpose functions you're there and i would refer the court to the blue brief page fifty two the existing merchant affiliate system is improved because webmasters this is the soci it's can now send it traffic sent its traffic in exchange for compensation even if the webmasters are enrolled in a different affiliate system we're talking about that pressure on her so if you haven't signed up with the merchant you can always put the hyperlink on your website and it will always take you to the merchants you can put amazon dot com on any website that you want now you might not get paid unless you sign up with the well i think we when we look at what's internet specific we look at the abstract idea first and here what the claim is directed to and what it recites is the receipt of referrals and then the tracking there so that is not a problem that occurs only on the internet that's a problem that as the district court recognized is a fundamental economic practice keeping track of who's in the referrals so that i can reward them later now the need to sign up with particular systems is really ordering the relationship between the humans not the internet specific problem like a technical problem that's that's in for example the safe harbors and al a patent cannot tie up one night idea it's commonplace such as hedging risk or intermediate settlements by simply saying apply to computers in this case the so she is invention doesn't tie up anything it doesn't tie up tracking and receiving over for all the merchant affiliates and did it before and it will continue to do in the same manner when it has limited tie up the process linking actors on the internet no your honor that actors are linked because the webmaster before the invention would sign up with the merchant and continues to do that in fact this patent doesn't even tie up the idea of a virtual affiliate system another inventor could come along with a better process and provide access t almost the same kind of idea i mean there was at at on the enter that i think this is the referrals i mean that it sounds like the similar kind of commercial activity that's adapted to the internet environment but is still an abstract idea you were in what can you tell me that it would lead to d d r this is similar to d v r indeedy our users would go to a website and they click on a link traditionally those users would be redirected to another website merchants website just like here but under d d r they click on that link they remain in the same website which will change the same look and feel but they are able to buy products from the merge it recreated that website essentially and in this case that same unconventional result a curse when the user clicks on a link at the webmaster rather than being directed to a merchant affiliate system using the merchant affiliate systems code it is directed to the virtual system where there is a correlation and generating the you are of the dysfunctional in the merchant system so that the webmaster consent traffic before a webmaster could not send traffic without configuring its own system to comply with the system a virtual affiliate system and so unlike bilski or alice where there is an idea that we're all familiar with and simply apply it in a technological field or imply it on the internet or apply to computer this is a process for access that never existed before and doesn't present anything but rather receiving and tracking referrals and electronic book keeping has always been around always will be around to continue the so she's patent doesn't claim that it's directed at providing