Appeal No. 97-0055
Application 08/430,111
assembling a product that has components.
Claim 31 is illustrative of the claimed invention, and it read as follows:
31. A method, performed by a computer, for assembling a product having components, the
method comprising the steps of:
(a) providing one or more abstract assembly steps for assembling the product, the abstract
assembly steps containing variable portions for assembling the product with potentially different
configurations, the variable portions including variable parameters capable of representing different
component information;
(b) obtaining a configuration model corresponding to a requested configuration of the product,
the configuration model including one or more of the component information lines corresponding to one
or more components utilized in the requested configuration; and
(c) applying the configuration model to the abstract assembly steps provided for assembling the
product by inserting component information from the component information lines into the variable
parameters of the variable portions of the abstract assembly steps to produce one or more assembly
instructions for assembling the product to have the requested configuration.
The reference relied on by the examiner is:
Sakamoto et al. (Sakamoto) 5,341,304 Aug. 23, 1994
(effective filing date Apr. 23, 1991)
Claims 22 through 38 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 102(e) as being anticipated by
Sakamoto.
Claims 22 through 40 stand rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as being unpatentable over
Sakamoto.
Reference is made to the brief and the answer for the respective positions of the appellants and
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