Appeal No. 2000-1690
Application No. 08/697,808
communicate between one another if the master device is present
and has allowed communication or if the master device is not a
member of the group (specification, page 9).
Representative independent claim 1 is reproduced below:
1. A network comprising:
a master or teacher processing device including
circuitry for transmitting data to and receiving data from a
plurality of student or client processing devices and for
generating signals indicating whether said plurality of
client or student processing devices are allowed to
communicate between each other; and
a plurality of client or student processing devices,
each client processing device have circuitry to communicate
with said master device and to select and communicate with
any of the other client processing devices if said master
processing device has generated a signal indicating that
said client processing devices are allowed to communicate
between one another or if said master processing device is
not present or otherwise not in communication with said
plurality of client processing devices.
The Examiner relies on the following references in rejecting
the claims:
Lewis et al. (Lewis) 5,303,042 Apr. 12, 1994
Buchholz et. (Buchholz) 5,493,569 Feb. 20, 1996
Riddle 5,572,582 Nov. 5, 1996
(filed Feb. 24, 1995)
Jim M. Ng et al. (Ng), “Interactive Group Discussion System for
Distance Education,” IEEE Multimedia Engineering Education, 1994,
pp. 270-275.
2
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