Appeal No. 95-3405
Application 08/077,505
rejection of claim 9 as being unpatentable over Steeves, or over
Christopher, cannot be sustained.
The rejections based on Nelson
Claims 1, 3, 5-8 and 10-12 stand rejected as being
anticipated by Nelson. The appellant argues that Nelson nowhere
discloses a back-up memory means which stores an inputted
emulation program such that it would not be erased when the
printer is turned off. The examiner, on the other hand, takes
the position that the character set definitions downloaded from
the host computer constitute just such an emulation program.
Nelson’s invention is directed to making an all points
addressable and nonimpact printer compatible with a host computer
which sends characters to be printed on a line printer. There
most certainly is an emulation program in Nelson. Note that
Nelson’s Abstract concludes with this description: "The
conversion apparatus emulates the operation of a high speed line
printer to the host processor while simultaneously emulating a
nonimpact printer programmed host processor to the nonimpact
printer." In column 3, lines 35-42 of Nelson, it is stated:
As the host processor transmits print control
information on a line by line basis, the conversion
apparatus in transparent fashion uses the retrieved
character set definition information to convert the
character identification and location data produced by
the host processor into the control signals required by
the all points addressable printer to print the
9
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