Task: songer_appnatpr

What follows is an opinion from a United States Court of Appeals.
Intervenors who participated as parties at the courts of appeals should be counted as either appellants or respondents when it can be determined whose position they supported. For example, if there were two plaintiffs who lost in district court, appealed, and were joined by four intervenors who also asked the court of appeals to reverse the district court, the number of appellants should be coded as six.
In some cases there is some confusion over who should be listed as the appellant and who as the respondent. This confusion is primarily the result of the presence of multiple docket numbers consolidated into a single appeal that is disposed of by a single opinion. Most frequently, this occurs when there are cross appeals and/or when one litigant sued (or was sued by) multiple litigants that were originally filed in district court as separate actions. The coding rule followed in such cases should be to go strictly by the designation provided in the title of the case. The first person listed in the title as the appellant should be coded as the appellant even if they subsequently appeared in a second docket number as the respondent and regardless of who was characterized as the appellant in the opinion.
To clarify the coding conventions, consider the following hypothetical case in which the US Justice Department sues a labor union to strike down a racially discriminatory seniority system and the corporation (siding with the position of its union) simultaneously sues the government to get an injunction to block enforcement of the relevant civil rights law. From a district court decision that consolidated the two suits and declared the seniority system illegal but refused to impose financial penalties on the union, the corporation appeals and the government and union file cross appeals from the decision in the suit brought by the government. Assume the case was listed in the Federal Reporter as follows:
United States of America,
Plaintiff, Appellant
v
International Brotherhood of Widget Workers,AFL-CIO
Defendant, Appellee.
International Brotherhood of Widget Workers,AFL-CIO
Defendants, Cross-appellants
v
United States of America.
Widgets, Inc. & Susan Kuersten Sheehan, President & Chairman
of the Board
Plaintiff, Appellants,
v
United States of America,
Defendant, Appellee.
This case should be coded as follows:Appellant = United States, Respondents = International Brotherhood of Widget Workers Widgets, Inc., Total number of appellants = 1, Number of appellants that fall into the category "the federal government, its agencies, and officials" = 1, Total number of respondents = 3, Number of respondents that fall into the category "private business and its executives" = 2, Number of respondents that fall into the category "groups and associations" = 1.
Note that if an individual is listed by name, but their appearance in the case is as a government official, then they should be counted as a government rather than as a private person. For example, in the case "Billy Jones & Alfredo Ruiz v Joe Smith" where Smith is a state prisoner who brought a civil rights suit against two of the wardens in the prison (Jones & Ruiz), the following values should be coded: number of appellants that fall into the category "natural persons" =0 and number that fall into the category "state governments, their agencies, and officials" =2. A similar logic should be applied to businesses and associations. Officers of a company or association whose role in the case is as a representative of their company or association should be coded as being a business or association rather than as a natural person. However, employees of a business or a government who are suing their employer should be coded as natural persons. Likewise, employees who are charged with criminal conduct for action that was contrary to the company policies should be considered natural persons.
If the title of a case listed a corporation by name and then listed the names of two individuals that the opinion indicated were top officers of the same corporation as the appellants, then the number of appellants should be coded as three and all three were coded as a business (with the identical detailed code). Similar logic should be applied when government officials or officers of an association were listed by name.
Your specific task is to determine the total number of appellants in the case that fall into the category "natural persons". If the total number cannot be determined (e.g., if the appellant is listed as "Smith, et. al." and the opinion does not specify who is included in the "et.al."), then answer 99.

J. SKELLY WRIGHT, Circuit Judge.
After a trial de novo pursuant to 35 U.S.C. § 145, the District Court affirmed the action of the Patent Office denying appellant’s patent application. Appellant alleges trial court error in failing to perceive that the gist of his invention is the “mathematical apportionment” of automotive wheel suspension elements shown in his patent application, and not the wheel suspension elements themselves. He insists that his invention defines “an intangible relationship, independent of specific structure,” and that the trial court’s finding of obviousness within the meaning of 35 U.S.C. § 103 resulted from its failure to recognize this distinction. Appellant readily concedes that the structural elements shown in his patent application to demonstrate the intangible relationship have been in the public domain for many years and are particularly described in the Metz patent which was cited as prior art by the Patent Office in denying his application. His invention, however, according to appellant, “lies in a concept; namely, mathematical apportionment.”
Initially, it may be seriously questioned whether a “concept,” an “intangible relationship,” or even a “mathematical apportionment” is patentable. Certainly naked ideas, independent of the means to carry them out, are not patentable. Atlantic Works v. Brady, 107 U.S. (17 Otto) 192, 2 S.Ct. 225, 27 L.Ed. 438 (1882). And where, as here, the structure used to demonstrate the concept is old in the art, no basis for the issuance of a patent is shown. Compare The Telephone Cases, 126 U.S. 1, 533, 8 S.Ct. 778, 31 L.Ed. 863 (1887). It is true, of course, that a process is patentable under 35 U.S.C. § 101. But appellant does not even suggest that his invention qualifies for a process patent. See Cochrane v. Deener, 94 U.S. (4 Otto) 780, 788, 24 L.Ed. 139 (1876).
Moreover, appellant’s contention that the District Court misconceived the nature of his invention is not supported by this record. The District Court, like the Patent Office Board of Appeals and the Patent Examiner, held that appellant’s alleged invention was anticipated by Metz. Although Metz does not use the term “mathematical apportionment,” the principle is clearly disclosed in his invention. As the District Court stated: “The Metz patent describes a suspension arrangement which is predicated upon these very same mathematical relationships [appellant’s equal rates of downward movement of the spring and the linkage].” Lyman v. Ladd, D.D.C., 232 F. Supp. 754, 756 (1964). Continuing, the District Court added: “In any event, it certainly cannot be said that the mathematical relationship would have been unobvious to a person ordinarily skilled in the art with the Metz patent to guide-him.” Ibid.
This court has frequently stated that “the findings of the Patent Office, an expert administrative body, especially when confirmed by the District Court, will not be overturned here unless clearly-infected with error.” Zenith Radio Corporation v. Ladd, 114 U.S.App.D.C. 54, 57, 310 F.2d 859, 862 (1962). The fact, that appellant, testifying in the District Court as his own expert witness, was: unimpressed with the Metz patent and challenged its viability as an anticipatory reference would not in itself require the District Court to reverse the action of the Patent Office. The District Court weighed appellant’s expert testimony against the record compiled in the Patent Office and found his expert testimony wanting. Its assessment of the credibility of that expert testimony is entitled to “due regard” by this court. Rule 52(a), Fed.R.Civ.P.
Affirmed.
. Appellant’s brief, at p. 5, reads:
“The elements of the above-described assembly are old and appellant takes no position to the contrary (JA 67). Appellant’s invention, and the point of novelty on which appellant predicates patentability, is the invention or discovery of a specific relationship between the frequency of the spring element and the gravity induced rate of downward movement of the mechanical elements of the system such that the wheel and the spring move downward through the same distance in the same time interval without creating unbalanced forces. This appellant calls ‘mathematical apportionment.’ ”
. 35 U.S.C. §103 reads:
“A patent may not be obtained though the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102 of this title, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary shill in the art to which said subject matter pertains. Patentability shall not be negatived by the manner in which the invention was made.”
. See Westinghouse Elec. & Mfg. Co. v. Powerlite Switchboard Co., 6 Cir., 142 F.2d 965 (1944).
. See In re Kothny, 96 F.2d 289, 25 CCPA (Patents) 1067 (1938).
. Compare Application of Shao Wea Yuan, 188 F.2d 377, 38 CCPA (Patents), 967 (1951).
. 35 U.S.C. § 101 reads:
“Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.”
. There were no other witnesses.
. Appellant, citing Bullard Co. v. Coe, 79 U.S.App.D.C. 369, 147 F.2d 568 (1945), opined that the structure described in the Metz patent would not work and was, therefore, without anticipatory significance.

Question: What is the total number of appellants in the case that fall into the category "natural persons"? Answer with a number.
Answer:

Answer: 1