[1] The business method at issue in Johnston was claimed as a "machine system for automatic record-keeping of bank checks and deposits."

Although the advance was claimed as a system, the invention was a method of creating records of bank checks for expenditures in different categories, such as rent, wages, cost of materials, etc.

[5] Judge Giles Rich dissented on the ground that the Benson case had held a computer program patent ineligible and the machine format was immaterial: " 'Every competent patent draftsman' can draft claims to computer programs either as a process or a machine system.

[10]Until Bilski v. Kappos[11] and Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank International[12] about four decades later, Johnston was the only business-method patent case that the Supreme Court had so far decided.

Text of Dann v. Johnston, 425 U.S. 219 (1976) is available from: CourtListener Findlaw Google Scholar Justia Library of Congress Oyez (oral argument audio)