Federal Circuit Finds Calculating Machine Ineligible

August 23, 1891 WASHINGTON, DC In a unanimous panel ruling, the Federal Circuit has found that the calculating machine of U.S. Patent No. 388,116 fails to meet the eligibility requirements of 35 U.S.C. § 101. Inventor W.S. Burroughs of St. Louis described the machine as “mechanically assisting arithmetical calculations.” Particularly, it includes “one or more registers, of a series of independent keys and intervening connections constructed, arranged, and operating, as fully specified hereinafter, so as to indicate upon the register the sum of any series of numbers by the proper manipulation of the keys, and also so as to print…