freeman–walter–abele test
Freeman–Walter–Abele test. Patents. An outmoded two-step judicial test for determining whether a claimed invention is an unpatentable mathematical algorithm. • The test looks first to whether an algorithm is explicit or inherent in the claim, and second to whether a patent would wholly preempt others from using the algorithm. In re Freeman, 573 F.2d 1237 (CCPA 1978); In re Walter, 618 F.2d 758 (CCPA 1980); In re Abele, 684 F.2d 902 (CCPA 1982). The Federal Circuit has said that the test has “little, if any, applicability” after State St. Bank & Trust Co. v. Signature Fin. Group, 149 F.3d 1368 (Fed. Cir. 1998).
