Appeal No. 96-0067 Application 08/075,241 Moreover, the appellants have not simply claimed mapping in general. Instead, a particular manner of mapping is required. According to claim 1, each node of the second data structure maps to at least one node at a single hierarchical level of the first data structure. As can be seen in the appellants' Figure 5, all map linkages originating from a node of graph 200 lead to nodes occupying the same level of hierarchy in tree 220. The examiner has not accounted for this feature of the invention, which has not been conceded by the appellants (Br. at 8, lines 21-28). We see this deficiency as another reversible error. It is further noted that claim 1 recites an interface means for encapsulating the first and second data structures from the inquiring applications. The examiner states (answer at 3) that Liang discloses an interface means for encapsulating, citing Liang's column 6, line 45. In the context of the appellants' invention, encapsulating data structures means having symbolic constructs, implemented by physical layers at lower levels of abstraction, which can be specially tailored to suit particular applications. See specification, page 13, lines 22-31, page 17, lines 7-13, page 18, lines 21-28. A data hiding function is implemented thereby to limit the amount of data accessed by each application. See specification, page 17, lines 11-13. The -7-Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 NextLast modified: November 3, 2007