Appeal No. 95-0907
Application 07/774,757
The cable or control lines described in Rattan's column 6,
lines 17-27 and column 16, lines 10-48, provide Rattan's
intelligent interface the ability to sense whether something is
connected to it through which lines. For instance, if a type 1
VCR is connected, then line 64E would be connected to ground
through the VCR, and if a type 2 VCR is connected, then line 64F
would be connected to ground through the VCR. (Column 16, lines
22-33). However, such "sensing" of whether a particular control
or sense line is connected to ground through an external device
cannot be reasonably regarded as sending messages from the
testing apparatus, which messages request return messages to be
transmitted by the device under test and in response to which the
device under test sends return messages. Insofar as the examiner
has apparently considered them to be the same, that is erroneous.
The examiner stated (answer at 4):
Rattan teaches in column 4, lines 5-20 that ". . .
error messages are sent to the computer 14 in response
to commands with invalid communication protocol or
format, commands that select a peripheral of a category
or device type that is not connected etc. . .".
(Emphasis in original.)
The foregoing text would not have reasonably suggested the
sending of a sequence of messages including messages requesting
return messages to be transmitted by the device under test. To
go from that disclosure to the appellant's claimed feature
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