Law360, New York ( April 5, 2017, 2:03 PM EDT) -- Patents that claim a mathematical equation sometimes are not eligible for patenting under 35 U.S.C. § 101. This is because the pure application of mathematical theory, e.g., using an equation derived from Newton's laws of motion to predict an object's location, is regarded in patent-parlance as an abstract concept. Whether such a claim is indeed patent-eligible under Section 101 depends on whether the claim as a whole recites an invention that the U.S. patent laws were meant to protect. Is the claim directed to little more than computing a number using an equation, or does the claim instead result in an unconventional process that uses the equation to produce a useful result? This was the basic patent-eligibility question before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Thales Visionix Inc. v. United States....