Appeal No. 2000-0190
Application No. 08/784,224
many drive mechanisms, tape mechanisms and tape pickers, etc. to make the data
available to be retrieved. Therefore, we find the examiner’s line of reasoning to be
sound and well supported within the context of a database retrieval system. Therefore,
we disagree with appellant’s argument. Additionally, we find no detail or definition of
what the “status” information is in the context of the express claim language.
Therefore, we agree with the examiner that availability or presence of data would have
been a type of status information. Additionally, we note that on page 3 of appellant’s
specification, appellant states that “knowledge matrix also stores status information on
the identified knowledge items to determined whether the identified knowledge items
are current, in existence, available, or otherwise in the proper form or status to satisfy
the knowledge worker’s request.” From our understanding of this range of scope of
“status information,” the examiner’s reasoning concerning availability or presence of
information is the same as one of appellant’s alternative interpretations.
According to the Second Edition of the Microsoft Press Computer Dictionary
(Copyright 1994) at page 208, “index” is defined as
Generally, a listing of key words and associated data that point to
the location of more comprehensive information. A directory index lo-
cates files and records on a disk. A record index describes the location of
key fields.
In programming, a scalar value that allows direct access into a
multielement data structure such as an array. The index allows the
programmer to calculate or otherwise derive the location of the desired
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