Appeal No. 1999-0227
Application No. 08/722,414
software application enabling interaction between users
sharing a “virtual environment” via an interconnecting
network, and comprises the step of transmitting a change of a
state of the application of a specific user to other users
“dependent on respective relative distances in the virtual
environment between the specific user and each respective one
of the other users.” Independent claim 5 is directed to a
data processing system enabling interaction between users in a
virtual environment and having a server operating in
accordance with the distance requirement stated above, and
independent claim 8 to a multi-user program enabling
interaction in a virtual environment and operative in the same
fashion.
The examiner has rejected all of these claims as being
anticipated by Mallinckrodt. We share the appellant’s opinion
that this is not the case because two features are lacking in
the reference. The first is that the claims are directed to
users operating in a “virtual environment,” that is, an
artificial environment which is experienced through sensory
4
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Next
Last modified: November 3, 2007