and lawn mowers. A “manufactured article” refers basically to any product or thing made by industry or man. Examples of manufactured articles would be carpets, toothbrushes, and purses. A “composition” is matter formed by the mixture of two or more ingredients. Examples of compositions are drugs, insecticides, adhesives, and electroplating solutions. An “improvement” is an addition, simplification, or variation relating to an existing machine, process, manufactured article, or composition of matter. Several Court decisions have provided further guidance on subject matter which is included in the categories of patentable subject matter. For example, the Courts have determined that both software and certain types of business methods are patentable. Although software and business methods are currently eligible for patent protection, such protection is typically premised not on their being a “method” or “process” under the statute, but an underlying tangible result of that method or process. One test which is useful, but is not the sole test, is whether the claimed invention is tied to a particular machine or apparatus; or if the claimed invention transforms a particular article into a different state or thing. In other words, in addition to being new, useful, and not obvious, software and business method inventions generally must be (1) tied to a particular machine, or (2) include a transformation of a physical article or material from one state or thing into another. For example, a business method invention that involves the operation of processing steps on a computer may be considered patentable subject matter if the invention is specifically tied to steps performed by the computer, especially if that computer is specially-constructed for a particular purpose - because the inclusion of the computer ties the process to a particular machine. 5
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