Flook

Flook is a legal case from 1970 involving the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the patentability of a computer-based method for updating the total from a number of separate entries on a record card. The court ruled that purely abstract ideas or mathematical algorithms, when implemented electronically, are not patentable because they do not qualify as a concrete invention or useful process. This case set an important precedent emphasizing that for a patent to be granted, an invention must demonstrate more than an abstract idea; it must produce a tangible, technological advancement.