( October 30, 2026, 10:33 AM EDT) -- WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) properly affirmed an examiner’s rejection of an applicant’s proposed patent describing a method of exchanging gold and silver for electronically recorded purchasing value, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held, because the proposed patent describes abstract economic concepts without a necessary inventive concept....