In Gottschalk v. Benson, 409 U.S. 63 (1972), the respondent sought to patent as a "new and useful process," 35 U.S. C. 101, "a method of programming a general-purpose digital computer to convert signals from binary-coded decimal form into pure binary form." 409 U.S., at 65. As the Court observed: "The claims were not limited to any particular art or technology, to any particular apparatus or machinery, or to any particular end use." Id., at 64. That limited holding, id., at 71, was that respondent's method was not a patentable "process" as that term is defined in 35 U.S. C. 100 (b).