Task: songer_typeiss

What follows is an opinion from a United States Court of Appeals.
Your task is to determine the general category of issues discussed in the opinion of the court. Choose among the following categories. Criminal and prisioner petitions- includes appeals of conviction, petitions for post conviction relief, habeas corpus petitions, and other prisoner petitions which challenge the validity of the conviction or the sentence or the validity of continued confinement. Civil - Government - these will include appeals from administrative agencies (e.g., OSHA,FDA), the decisions of administrative law judges, or the decisions of independent regulatory agencies (e.g., NLRB, FCC,SEC). The focus in administrative law is usually on procedural principles that apply to administrative agencies as they affect private interests, primarily through rulemaking and adjudication. Tort actions against the government, including petitions by prisoners which challenge the conditions of their confinement or which seek damages for torts committed by prion officials or by police fit in this category. In addition, this category will include suits over taxes and claims for benefits from government. Diversity of Citizenship - civil cases involving disputes between citizens of different states (remember that businesses have state citizenship). These cases will always involve the application of state or local law. If the case is centrally concerned with the application or interpretation of federal law then it is not a diversity case. Civil Disputes - Private - includes all civil cases that do not fit in any of the above categories. The opposing litigants will be individuals, businesses or groups.

ROBB, Associate Justice.
Appeal from a decision of the Commissioner of Patents, refusing to allow certain claims covering a machine for manufacturing cigars, a number of claims having been allowed.
Claims 1 and 11 are illustrative of the several claims and axe here reproduced:
“1. In a cigar machine, the combination, with means for concentrating a bunch to give it temporary set without closing draft passages or producing exterior ridges, of means associated with said concentrating means for immediately applying a wrapper to the concentrated bunch.”
“11. In a cigar machine, the combination, with means for concentrating a bunch to give it temporary set without closing draft passages or producing exterior ridges, of means associated with said concentrating means for immediately applying a wrapper to the concentrated bunch, and means for transporting the bunch from said concentrating means to said wrapper-applying means, and the resultant cigar from 'said wrapper-applying means to a suitable delivery position.”
The claims were rejected on two references — Lacroix, No. 1,128,989, February 16, 1915; and Tyberg, No. 1,075,172, October 7, 1913. The Lacroix patent covers a cigar-making machine very similar to applicant’s,' while the Tyberg patent shows a machine for wrapping cigar bunches, which form of wrapping mechanism applicant employs in his ma- • chine. It is contended that applicant’s machine differs from the machine of Lacroix, in that the bunch is “concentrated” and not compressed ; that in a compressed bunch the draft passages of the cigar are liable to be closed, and the cigar, of course, rendered unfit for use; and that applicant has overcome this difficulty by concentrating the bunch.
The Patent Office tribunals have held that the difference between “compression” and “concentration” is the result of employing a less quantity of filler; in other words, that, if Lacroix should employ the same quantity of filler as is employed by applicant, his machine would do substantially the same work. In the machines of both Lacroix and applicant, the bunch is molded in a form to which heat is applied. The Commissioner said: “Applicant is not entitled to claims which read directly on an old device, which is capable of producing his cigars and will necessarily produce the same product if the right quantity of filler is used.”
A careful reading of applicant’s brief, in connection with his oral argument, has failed to convince us that the Patent Office erred in rejecting the claims involved, and the decision therefore is affirmed.
Affirmed.

Question: What is the general category of issues discussed in the opinion of the court?
A. criminal and prisoner petitions
B. civil - government
C. diversity of citizenship
D. civil - private
E. other, not applicable
F. not ascertained
Answer:

Answer: B