Opinion ID: 4524758
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Alice Step 1: Abstract Idea

Text: Reading the claims in light of the specification, the Board agreed with the examiner that the claims at issue “are directed to the abstract idea of using algorithms or mathematical relationships to devise a measurement strategy for spectrally based measurements.” Gopalan, 2019 WL 764513, at . As the Board explained, this court has held that claims focused on analyzing information using mathematical algorithms are directed to an abstract idea. Id. at ; see, e.g., Elec. Power Grp., LLC v. Alstom S.A., 830 F.3d 1350, 1354 (Fed. Cir. 2016) (finding claims directed to an abstract idea because “[t]he advance they purport to make is a process of gathering and analyzing information of a specified content, then displaying the Case: 19-2070 Document: 39 Page: 7 Filed: 04/13/2020 IN RE: GOPALAN 7 results, and not any particular assertedly inventive technology for performing those functions”); SAP Am., Inc. v. InvestPic, LLC, 898 F.3d 1161, 1167 (Fed. Cir. 2018) (finding claims “focused . . . on selecting certain information, analyzing it using mathematical techniques, and reporting or displaying the results of the analysis” are directed to an abstract idea). Mr. Gopalan argues that his claimed invention results in optimizing “the number of true positives and false positives . . . such as to avoid or reduce the effect of stray signals” “in spectrally based measurements,” which he claims is a “novel and useful result obtained with the help of optimization.” Appellant’s Br. at 12, 14, 22. But, as the Board correctly found, the claims are recited at a “high level of generality [that] does not limit the claims to rules with specific characteristics.” Gopalan, 2019 WL 764513, at  (explaining that “[a]lthough mathematical relationships and algorithms are implicated in the recitations of [the independent] claims, these claims do not actually recite any particular rules”). The claims only generically recite “a metric,” “an optimization technique,” an “optimization parameter,” “a value of a number of independent measures,” and “a value for a confidence measure.” None of these variables are defined, and the claims do not concretely limit these variables such that the claims do not merely claim the result of obtaining a “substantially optimal combination of true positives and false positives” in the data set. Thus, the claims do not “embody a concrete solution to a problem” because they lack “the specificity required to transform a claim from one claiming only a result to one claiming a way of achieving it.” Interval Licensing, 896 F.3d at 1343 (citing SAP Am., Inc. v. InvestPic, LLC, 890 F.3d 1016, 1021–22 (Fed. Cir. 2018) (collecting cases)). Indeed, the claims provide result-oriented limitations like others we have held to be directed to abstract ideas. See Case: 19-2070 Document: 39 Page: 8 Filed: 04/13/2020 8 IN RE: GOPALAN Elec. Power Grp., 830 F.3d at 1356 (“Indeed, the essentially result-focused, functional character of claim language has been a frequent feature of claims held ineligible under § 101, especially in the area of using generic computer and network technology to carry out economic transactions.”); Interval Licensing, 896 F.3d at 1345 (finding claim directed to “non-interfering display of two information sets, without any limitation on how to produce that result” to be ineligible).