This is the idea that a patentshould be given to a machine or something that creates a material change, like a chemical process.

VOA: special.2010.07.16

Since a federal appeals court affirmed the USPTO in In re Bilski, lower courts around the country have adopted the same logic, saying patents must involve a machine or a process that transforms some type of material substance.

FORBES: Bilski May Take Down Business Method Patents With Him

Beach nourishment: artificial process of replenishing a beach with material from another source that lies either inland or is dredged offshore.

UNESCO: L O S S A R Y

The raw material, in the matching process, is a mass of stated preference: your desire or intolerance for certain traits and characteristics.

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