Appeal No. 96-2517
Application 08/425,309
The examiner attempts to buttress his position by citing Stefik for the proposition that a user can
benefit from knowing the state of activities of other users even when the first user is not engaged in
activities with those other users. While this is a fair teaching that all participants in a workstation
conferencing environment might wish to be aware of others’ activities, there is clearly no teaching or
suggestion of the specific means, i.e. a “line” between the representation of conference participants and
their respective pointer icons, recited in the instant claims.
Finally, the examiner relies on Smith which discloses an icon in the shape of a human hand with
the name of a conference participant associated therewith. While Smith may provide a very general
teaching of identifying a particular icon as being associated with a particular user, there is no “line”
suggested and neither Smith nor Stefik provides for the deficiency noted supra with regard to APA.
We disagree with the examiner when he states, at page 3 of the answer, that “[i]n view of Smith..., a
line as claimed is suggested.” No such “line” is suggested by any one of the applied references or by
any combination thereof.
The examiner’s decision rejecting claims 1 through 54 under 35 U.S.C. § 103 is reversed.
REVERSED
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