Appeal No. 1999-0227
Application No. 08/722,414
stimuli provided by a computer. This is not the case in the2
Mallinckrodt system, which is an actual cellular
communications system, in which users operate in real time in
a real environment. The second reason is that the appellant’s
claims require that a transmitted change of state (the
message) from a specific user be sent to other users based
upon their closeness to the sender in the virtual environment,
that is, the distance between the sender and the recipients,
whereas in the Mallinckrodt system this is of no consequence,
for what matters is the sum of the distance between the sender
and the required relay station (satellite or tower), and the
distance between the relay station and the recipient.
Since all of the subject matter recited in independent
claims 1, 5 and 8 is not present in the reference, it cannot
be anticipatory. This being the case, we will not sustain the
rejection of claims 1, 5 and 8 or, it follows, of claims 2-4,
6 and 7, which are dependent therefrom.
2See, for example, Merriam Webster’s Collegiate
Dictionary, Tenth Edition, 1996, page 1320.
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