Reading your comment once again, i think I should answer this
paragraph.
But it takes a lot of engineering and invention to find
practical, near-optimal digital codes for transmission of information,
particularly over many real-world channels. Have you ever had a digital cell
phone call dropped? Have you ever tried to pick up a DTV signal over the air
without signal drops or pixelation? Disregarding novelty and obviousness (which
are separate questions), are you prepared to say that practical solutions to
these problems do not qualify as patentable subject matter?
My
answer is it depends on what is claimed. Does the patent claim the contents of
what is being transmitted? Or does it claim a device for transmitting contents
while leaving the contents out of the patent?
This is a situation like a
patent on a printing press. A new printing press is patentable but the printed
contents is not. Similarly if an engineer invents a device for moving symbols
from one place to another this device is patentable as long as he doesn't patent
the symbols being transmitted.
There is also the situation when the
solution involves a computation component. The computation itself is
mathematical contents. So the claim on your hypothetical communication device
should include non symbolic elements sufficient to distinguish it from a claim
on the computation. This is like the Diehr rubber curing case which includes the
step of curing the rubber. Remove this step and it becomes an unpatentable claim
on a computation based on the Arrhenius equation.
I believe practical
utility does not distinguish contents from patentable invention. For example, a
phone book is useful. A video of a leaking underwater oil well is useful. There
is a lot of work in obtaining these contents. It is not easy to collect the data
and ensuring it is correct. What distinguish these situations from an algorithm
for the optimal codes to be transmitted over a channel? I say the claim must
include a distinguishing element and this element can't be utility.
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