Parker v. Flook, 1978 United States Supreme Court case that ruled that a mathematical algorithm is not patentable if its application itself is not novel.
Thus, the court held that according to Funk the manner of implementation of a natural principle must itself be patentable, as Flook subsequently held.
A competent draftsman could attach some form of post-solution activity to almost any mathematical formula; the Pythagorean theorem would not have been patentable, or partially patentable, because a patent application contained a final step indicating that the formula, when solved, could be usefully applied to existing surveying techniques.
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